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THINGS OLD AND NEW 



FROM 



RUTHERFORD. 



EDITED BY 



Mrs. M. G. RIGGS. 



NEW YORK: 
Bowne & Co., Publishers. 

December, lSgS. 









"Commend to the keeping of the Truth whatever the Truth 
hath given thee, and thou shalt lose nothing." — 

Confessions of St. Augustine. 









TO THE RECTOR, WARDENS AND VESTRY 
OF GRACE CHURCH, 
THIS LITTLE BOOK— A SOUVENIR OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH 
ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHURCH- 
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
BY THE EDITOR. 



Cable of Contents. 



Land Patents and Early Settlers, ........ 7 

The Old Schuyler Copper Mine, ........ 12 

Some Old Deeds 14 

Old Houses and Roads, ......... 16 

Long Ago and Later, .......... 18 

The Schuyler Mansion, and Extract from an" Old Letter, ... 21 

John Rutherfurd 23 

Reminiscences, ........... 24 

The Meadows 28 

Extract of Letter from Mr. F. W. Tomkins, 30 

Rutherford in '62, 31 

Rutherford in '67, 34 

Rutherford in 71, • 36 

East Rutherford, 38 

Slavery in New Jersey, .......... 40 

Sermon on 25th Anniversary of Grace Church, ..... 43 

Historical Sketch of Presbyterian Church, ...... 50 

Historical Sketch of Baptist Church, ....... 52 

Historical Sketch of Methodist Church, 53 

Historical Sketch of Congregational Church, ..... 54 

Historical Sketch of Unitarian Church, ...... 55 

Lyndhurst Presbyterian Chapel, ........ 56 

Emmanuel Chapel, ........... 57 

Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church, East Rutherford, ... 58 

Union Club, ............ 59 

Royal Arcanum, ........... 60 

Knights of Pythias, 61 

Odd Fellows, 62 

Masons 63 

Gershom Mott Post, G. A. R 63 

Company L, N. G., . . . . . . . . . . 64 

Names of Borough and Streets, ........ 65 

Some Interesting Places, .......... 67 

Rutherford Fire Department, ........ 67 

Geography, etc- , ........... 68 

Woman's Reading Club, ......... 69 

Rutherford Mutual Building and Loan Association, .... 71 

Letter from Frank Stockton, ........ 71 

Free Public Library, .......... 72 

Wild Flowers of Rutherford, ........ 74 

In Memoriam, F. W. Tomkins, ........ 75 

Hymn for the Coming New Year, ....... 76 



Preface. 



THIS little book does not pretend to be a history, or 
even the outlines of a history of Rutherford. Most 
of the subjects touched upon have been suggested by ques- 
tions often heard from people interested in our beautiful 
town, which apparently no man could answer. The search 
once commenced, with regard to the first settlers and their 
manner of life here — the geological formation of the 
mysterious meadows, the first organization of churches, 
public schools, etc., became so interesting — so almost fascin- 
ating, that it is no more than just to allow the public to 
share in the pleasure of at least a portion of the results. 
The little volume also serves in one way to mark the 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the opening of Grace Church 
for public worship. It is not an imposing souvenir, but 
it includes the Anniversary sermon of our Rector, the 
Rev. Henry M. Ladd, and as this contains the history 
of the church from its beginning, the book will be a most 
desirable possession to all who are interested in the church's 
origin and growth. The brief historical sketches of the 
other churches in town, chiefly given by the different pas- 
tors, will show to a very interesting extent quite a complete 
account of the religious growth of the place, while intel- 
lectual progress and social advancement are indicated by 



the various other statements made. It is hoped that the 
facts presented here especially with regard to the more 
distant past, will stimulate a desire for farther investiga- 
tion, as there are still vast unexplored fields where those 
who seek diligently will be generously rewarded. The 
editor wishes most cordially and heartily to thank all 
those who have with such promptness and friendly interest 
acceded to requests for contributions. The kindness mani- 
fested in such full measure would have made a much more 
difficult task seem light and pleasant. If the perusal of the 
little "brochure" yields as much pleasure as the collecting 
and arranging of its contents have given, then indeed will 
the work not have been in vain. 



Let her glad valleys smile with wavy corn ; 
Let fleecy flocks her rising hills adorn. 

, —Matthew Prior. 

LAND PATENTS AND EARLY SETTLERS. 



HENRY H. COPELAND. 

The land comprised within the territorial limits of Rutherford 
formed parts of two large grants of land, known as patents, the part 

south of Union 
Avenue being em- 
braced within the 
limits of the 
Kingsland Pat- 
ent, while the part 
north of Union 
Avenue wasapor- 
tion of the Berry 
Patent. The 
Kingsland Pat- 
ent bears date 
March 26, 1669, 
and was issued 
by John Lord 
Berkley and Sir George Carteret to William Sanford, of the island 
of Barbadoes, in trust for Nathaniel Kingsland, of the same island, 
and conveyed the land lying between the Passaic and Hackensack 
rivers to a spring and brook. This included about 15,000 acres, 
and was upon the condition that he should settle six or eight farms 
within three years and pay twenty pounds sterling annually. 

On July 20, 1669, William Sanford purchased from the Indians 
the same property, for 170 fathoms of black wampum, 200 fathoms 
of white wampum, 19 watch coats, 16 guns, 60 double hands of 
powder, 10 pair breeches, 60 knives, 67 bars of lead, 1 anker of 
brandy, 3 half vats of beer, 11 blankets, 80 axes and 20 hoes. The 
tribe with whom this deal was consummated was the Minisi (wolf) 




tribe of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Nation. On May 21, 1673, 
the Governor and Council of East Jersey confirmed the previous 
deeds by a patent and granted to Nathaniel Kingsland the title of 
Major. 

John Berry, who also came from the island of Barbadoes, secured 
his patent in 1670, which extended northward from Sanford's six 
miles in the country. The homestead still remains in the possession 
of one of the descendants. 

Nathaniel Kingsland, who owned all of the territory in this county 
south of Union Avenue, was a resident of the island of Barbadoes, 
and the property was purchased and residence built for him by 
William Sandford, as narrated above. It is not known definitely 
whether he lived on his plantation or not, but his nephew, Isaac 
Kingsland, and his sons John and Nathaniel, are known to have 
lived here. Isaac Kingsland was a man of considerable prominence, 
being a Deputy in the General Legislature from 1684 to 1692 and 
one of the Commissioners appointed in 1682 for the establishment of 
roads, bridges and ferries throughout the province. The Kingsland 
family has furnished a number of prominent men not only to this 
county and State, but also to other States. 

Nathaniel Kingsland disposed of that portion of his property 
which includes the present Borough of Rutherford in two parcels. 

The part extending from 
Union avenue to High- 
land Cross and the same 
lines extended between 
the Hackensack and Pas- 
saic rivers he sold to 
Bartholomew Feurt, and 
the remainder to Elias 
Boudinot, whose son was 
the Treasurer of the Con- 
tinental Congress and a 
member of the first Con- 
gress of the United States. 
Bartholomew Feurt sold the western part of his land to Walling Van 
Winkle and the eastern part to John and William Stagg. William 
Stagg disposed of his property to Christopher Van Northstrand 
and John Stagg sold his property to Peter Kip in 1741. Part of 
this property still remains in the possession of the Kip family. 

Elias Boudinot sold the part of his property extending from High- 
land Cross to Woodland Avenue and from river to river to Jan 




(John) Jurianse (son of Juria or Jerry). A large portion of this 
property still remains in the possession of the Yereance family, 
whose ancestor he was. The remainder of his property, included 
within the limits of Rutherford, he sold to Harport Garrabrantse. 

In this connection some explanation of the nomenclature of the 
Dutch should be given. It was a custom long in vogue among the 
Dutch to designate the children by the using zoon, sen, se or son as 
an affix to the paternal Christian name. Thus Jan Jurianse means 
John whose father is Juria. His son Juria was called Juria Jansen 
or Johnson. In like manner Walling Jacobson Van Winkle appears 
to have been called by the name of Walling Jacobson, his son by the 
name of Jacob Wallingse and his grandson by the name of John 
Jacobson. 

The family name of the Yereances (or Jurianses) is Van Riper. 

There are comparatively few of those of Dutch descent in this 
section who have maintained as a family name this style of nomen- 
clature. The 
Jacobson, Pauli- 



son and Garret- 
son families are, 
however, exam- 
ples. The use of 
the paternal 
Christian name as 
a middle name is, 
however, still 
continued to this 
day among those 
of Holland des- 
cent. This style 
of naming is re- 
sponsible for 
such names as Peter Peter Kip, James James Brinkerhoff and John 
John Yereance. 

Another style of names are those given to persons to denote the 
particular trades they were employed in. These names were mainly 
given to the families before emigrating from Holland. They com- 
prise such names as Brouwer, Schoonmaker, Schuyler, Dykeman 
and Koster. 

The more common designation is derived from the town or place 
they emigrated from, such as Van Winkle, Van Reiper, Brinkerhoff. 




10 

William Sandford, who in 1670 made the original purchases for 
Nathaniel Kingsland from Lord Berkley and Sir George Cartaret 
and also from the Indians, was an Englishman from the island of 
Barbadoes, also frequently called Little England. 

He built for Mr. Kingsland a house and established a farm 
believed to have been on Union avenue, in which he lived for a 
number of years, and received for his services one-third of the land 
which was granted by the patent. 

Under the system common at that time, large landed proprietors 
had conferred upon them military titles. Thus Nathaniel Kingsland 
received the title of Major and William Sandford the title of 
Captain. 

Mr. Sandford was one of the most prominent men in the province, 
as is shown by the high offices which he held. He was appointed 
President of the Court of Oyer and Terminer on June 13, 1673, and 
on November 5, 1675, was made one of the seven members of the 
Kings Council of New Jersey, in which position he served continu- 
ously from 1671 to 1684. He was one of the nine commissioners 
appointed by the Council and Deputies to make the treaty with the 
Indians at Piscataqua on May 27, 1679, and acted with such Com- 
mission in passing the act prohibiting the sale of strong drink to the 
Indians. In 1682 he, together with Isaac Kingsland and John 
Berry, were instrumental in securing the passage of the act for the 
making of highways and the establishment of bridges and ferries- 
Owing to some litigation between himself and John Berry, they also 
secured the passage of an act in 1688 establishing pounds in the 
plantations of New Barbadoes (which includes the present Ruther- 
ford) and Hackensack. 

He died in 1692 and requested to be buried on his own plantation. 
He asked his friends " to assist and favor the concerns of a poor 
ignorant widow and five innocent children with their best advice, 
help and council, to preserve them from those vultures and harpies 
which prays on the carkasses of widdows and fatten with the blood 
of orphans." 

His children were Ardinah, who married Richard Berry, constable 
of New Barbadoes and son of John Berry ; Peregrine, who married 
Fytje, daughter of Enoch Michielse Vreeland ; William, who in 1705 
became a Justice of the Supreme Court ; Elizabeth, who married 
Captain James Davis, and Grace. 

John Berry was also one of the early settlers, and is believed to 
have resided in the house now owned by Mr. Peter H. Kip. He 
obtained his patent on July 20, 1670. This covered a large tract of 



11 




land of fully 2000 acres, and extended from Union avenue north- 
ward beyond Hackensack. He was by birth an Englishman and 
resided, prior to his coming to this county, in the island of Barba- 
does. He owned also considerable property in the town of Bergen, 

his house there be- 
ing taken for the 
" prison for the 
province " on July 
19, 1673, at which 
time he is believed 
to have removed 
to his house on 
what is now Union 
avenue. He was 
made a member of 
the King's Council 
of the province on 
November 5, 1675. 
This council form- 
ed a part of the 
General Assembly, which consisted of the Governor, the Council of 
seven members, or one from each county, and the Deputies or Rep- 
resentatives having fourteen members, or two members from each 
of the seven counties. He was Acting Governor from 1672 to 1674. 
Mr. Berry was also one of the Commissioners appointed in 1682 for 
the laying out of roads, bridges and ferries. 

On February 16, 1677, Mr. Berry was made one of the judges and 
President of the County Court. 

Mr. Berry gave the land for the erection of the church at Hacken- 
sack in 1696. The original deed is now in the archives of the 
church. The consideration is stated to be " that the inhabitants of 
Hackensack, New Barbadoes and Acquackenonck (now Passaic) are 
intended to build a church." This church was the only church in 
this section until 1706, when the church at Acquackanonk was com- 
pleted. The records of both churches were, however, kept at 
Hackensack until 1726. 

John Berry sold the western part of his property lying in Ruther- 
ford and East Rutherford on March 26, 1687, to Walling Jacobs 
Van Winkle, from whom the Van Winkle family in this section are 
descended, and who still own a large portion of the property, and 
the eastern part to Garret Van Vorst and Margaret Stagg. This 
division line began at Union avenue, at a point about 100 feet east 



12 

of Riverside avenue, and extended to the Paterson Plank Road. 
This line has since been maintained as a division line, a period of 
over 200 years. The Stagg property passed in 1742 into the posses- 
sion of the Vreeland family, in which family parts of it still remain. 
The Van Vorst tract was divided by Garret Van Vorst between his 
two sons, Walling and Cornelius, Walling taking the part adjoining 
Union avenue and Cornelius the northeasterly part. Cornelius sold 
his share to R. J. Van Horn, who sold to J. S. Banta, and he in turn 
conveyed to Isaac Ackerman, in which family it remained a long 
time. 

There are no descendants of any of these families now living here. 

Walling's share passed in 1785 into the possession of Peter Kip, 
and it remained in the Kip family or in one of the collateral 
branches for about one hundred years. 



" Proprieties our silken bards environ, 

He who would be the tongue of this broad land 
Must string his harp with cords of sturdy iron, 
And strike it with a toil-embrowned hand." 

— Lozvell. 

THE OLD SCHUYLER COPPER MINE. 

T. N. GLOVER. 

About three miles below Rutherford, on the brow of the hill over- 
looking the Hackensack meadows, is situated the Schuyler copper 
mine. Bishop says it was the most famous one in the colonies, 
though as we use the term it was never much of a mine. 

Yet it was a factor in causing the Revolutionary War. England 
prohibited manufacturing in this country, hence the crude ore was 
sent direct to Bristol, Eng., where it commanded forty pounds ($200) 
per ton. That market being somewhat limited, Mr. Schuyler sent a 
cargo to Holland, and Parliament immediately made copper an 
enumerated article in order to control it. So great a reputation had 
this mine that many persons applied to the crown for permission to 
open mines, and one company of speculators offered $100,000 for 
the property on which the Schuyler mine was situated, and was 
refused. 

It was never very difficult to work, except that it would easily fill 
with water. The native rock is sandstone, into which has been 
injected trap. Several ores exist there, and the analysis of an 
unusually pure specimen shows eighty-two per cent, red oxide of 



i:i 



copper, and an average piece produces sixty or seventy per cent. 
This was the main ore shipped. I have found a few small, though 
fine, specimens of hydrous silicate of copper, also azurite. Mala- 
chite abounds, and gold and silver exist in small quantities. In the 
days of its greatest activity the shaft probably was from one hundred 
to one hundred and fifty feet deep, but in later days it reached to 
two hundred and twelve feet. A level went off at a hundred and 
fifty feet. 

Here was erected the first steam engine in America west of the 
Hudson River and the third on the continent. It was a Newcommen 
engine — such a one as is used in Cornwall, Eng , at this day — and, 
according to Dr. Franklin, cost one thousand pounds. It was erected 
in 1755 and abandoned in 1773. It was not entered at the Custom 
House when brought here, because the laws of England forbade the 
exportation of machinery and workmen, nor was its coming gener- 
ally known, because public curiosity would have delayed the work 
of putting it up. As it was, people came from far and near to see it 

work, spending sometimes 
days on the way, and one 
man frankly declared in 
his diary, " It was too 
great for my poor brain 
to comprehend." 

Mr. Hornblower, who 
later married into the 
Schuyler family, came 
here from England with 
it and was compelled to 
design the engine house 
and provide the building 
materials, so that a year 
and a half elapsed before 
it was in working order. 
The boiler was in the 
shape of a dome eight or 
ten feet high, above which 
rose a cylinder flange, and still higher was a water tank. The piston 
moved ten or twelve times a minute, and lifted possibly eight hogs- 
heads of water at a stroke. It pumped from a hundred foot level. 
Three men were required to work it, and it wasted far more steam 
than it used. A part of the old cylinder was exhibited at the 
Philadelphia Centennial, and is still in that city. This mine was 




14 

called " The Schuyler Mine " because it was owned and operated by a 
member of the Schuyler family, of Albany, who lived near Belleville. 
Tradition says that it was discovered in 1715. We know that before 
1731 Mr. Schuyler had sent to Bristol, Eng , 138G tons of ore, which re- 
quired some time with their facilities. It was probably an old Indian 
mine or quarry, for some of the Indians used copper tools, like those 
found at a later date in the Lake Superior mines. One story has it 
that a negro slave, while plowing, found a greenish rock of great 
weight, which upon analysis proved to be excellent copper ore. 
Wishing to reward him, Mr. Schuyler offered him three things of his 
own choosing. He chose first always to live with Mr. Schuyler ; 
secondly, that he might always have all the tobacco that he wanted ; 
thirdly, that he might have a green dressing gown with brass buttons 
just like the one his master wore. When asked if he wanted anything 
more, he answered, " Yes ; just a little more tobacco." 



" There are no fools so troublesome as those that have brains." 

— La Rochfoucanld. 

OLD PAPERS. 

Through the politeness of Mr. Arthur W. Van Winkle we have 
been permitted to examine many remarkably interesting old papers 
and documents. From some ancient deeds we make the following 
extracts, which we copy "verbatim et literatim." The Jacob Wall- 
ingsen Van Winkle mentioned in the first is the great-great-grand- 
father of Mr. Arthur W. Van Winkle : 

" This Indenture, made the twenty Eighth day of February, in the 
Sixth yeare of the Reigne of our now Sovereign Lady Ann, by the 
Grace of God over England &c. Queen anno Dom. one thousand 
seven hundred and seven Between Bartholomew Feurt of the 
Citty of New York Merch 1 and Magdilane his wife testified by her 
being a party to and Ensealing and Delivery of these presents of the 
one part and Jacob Wallingsen Van Winkle of the county of Essex 
in the province of New Jersey, Yeoman, of the other part. Witness- 
eth, that the said Bartholomew Feurt for and in Consideration of five 
pounds Current money of the province afores 11 and a certain greater 
and more valuable Consideration and Greater Sum of money by the 
s' 1 Jacob Walingsen Van Wincle, in hand at and before the Ensealing 
and Delivery of these presents, to the s (I Bartholimew Feurt, well 
and duly paid and Satisfied, the Receipt hereof is hereby acknowl- 
edged and himselfe therewith Satisfied Contented and Paid. &c &c 
And the hereby payment ensures every part of the premises with the 



15 



appurtenances for the benefit and behoofe of him the s'd Jacob, his 
heirs and assigns against the said Bartholimew Feurt, his wife, their 
heirs and assigns, and against all persons Clayming or pretending to 
Clayme any Estate Right title or Interest— of in or to the above 
bargained premises." 

This document, written on parchment and in penmanship very 
bold and clear, in ink very slightly faded notwithstanding its nearly 
two hundred years, was signed by Bartholomew Feurt and Magdalen 
his wife, but could not be recorded here, as at that time there was 
no clerk's office in the county. Later, however, the following 

endorsement appeared 
on it: "New Jersey, 
County Bergen, May 1st 
1835. There appeared 
before me William Sip 
one of his Majesties 
Council for the Province 
o f New Jersey with 
Gustavus Kingsland one 
of the Witnesses to the 
within who declared on 
the Holy Evangelist of 
Almighty God that he 
saw the within named 
Bartholimew Feurt and Magdalina Feurt Sign Seal and deliver the 
Same as their voluntary act and Deed and that he had John Pinhorn 
sign as a witness, whereby I alow it may be recorded, signed 

" Wm. Provoost." 
Another indenture, made the 16th day of March, in the year 
1684, " in the seven and thirtieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign 
Lord King Charles the Second," between the Lords Proprietors of 
the province of East New Jersey of the one part and Hans Dedericks 
and twelve others of the other part, in which the party of the first 
part in consideration of the sum of fifty pounds in Sterling Money 
did grant bargain and sell to Hans Dedericks and twelve others 
their heirs and assigns a certain tract of land Situate Lying and 
Being upon the Passaic River in the County of Esex, called and 
known by the name of Acquackennonk, Beginning at the Northern- 
most bounds of the town of Newark and so running from the Lower- 
most part to the Uppermost part thereof as far as the steep Rocks or 
Mountains and from the said Lowermost parts along Passaick River 




16 

to the Great Falls thereof and so along the Steep Rocks and Moun- 
tains to the Uppermost of Newark Bounds, aforesaid as it is more 
plainly demonstrated by a Chart or Draught made by the late 
Surveyor Generall. together with all the rivers ponds Creeks Islands 
and also all Inlets, Bays, Swamps, marshes, meadows pastures. 
Fields, fences Woods, Underwoods, Fishings, Hawkings, Huntings, 
Fowlings, and all other appurtenances whatsoever thereunto apper- 
taining and belonging, &c." And for all this Hans Dedericks and 
twelve others were to pay to the Lords Proprietors, their heirs and 
assigns, in addition to the first payment of fifty pounds, the Chief or 
Quit Rent of fourteen pounds of Sterling money on every five and 
twentieth day of March forever after. The deed of portions of the 
cedar swamp near here and meadows and other land adjoining, from 
Helmugh Sip, Johannes Sip, Waling Van Winchel, for five shillings 
and other valuable considerations, begins thus: "This Indenture 
made the 18th day of January in the Eighth year of the Reign of 
our Sovereign Lord, George the Third by the Grace of God of Great 
Britain France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. anno 
que Domini, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight." 

These papers conveyed the land of the present borough, besides 
much of the adjoining territory, though it would seem that the ideas 
and information of our " foregoers " were not always quite clear as 
to limits and boundaries. 

The expense of recording a deed in Queen Anne's time is as 
follows, according to the memorandum on the back of the deed : 

Recording Deed £0 7s fid 

Acknowledging same 8s Od 

Drawing Acknowledgement Is Od 

£0 lis fid 



" I leave my soul to God, my body to the earth and my wealth to my nearest 
relatives." — Michael A/igelo's Will. 

OLD HOUSES AND ROADS. 

HENRY H. COPELAND. 

The oldest road in the county is Union avenue, having been 
established on the line between the Kingsland and Berry patents 
prior to 1672 and was known as early as 1G71 as the Old Indian 
Trail. This road was called for a great number of years Boiling 
Springs Lane, owing to the location of the boiling springs, which 
afterwards gave their name to this section, by the side of the road. 



17 




In 1716 a road two rods wide was established to run from the 
northeast corner of Jacob Van Winkle's house to bounds of Jacob 
Van Nordstrands line. This road extended from about the line of 
the present Paterson Plank Road to Union avenue. In November 

of the next year the road was made 
four rods wide and extended to the 
Bellville bridge. This road is now 
known as Riverside avenue. The 
next oldest road is the Meadow road, 
known also by the names of Newark 
avenue and Hackensack street. This 
road was known as the road from 
Newark to Hackensack and for a 
long time was the only means of com- 
munication between those places. 
The portion of the road in Ruther- 
ford and East Rutherford was formerly very crooked, but through 
the efforts of the late Daniel Van Winkle the street was straightened. 
For 150 years these three roads constituted the only highways in 
Rutherford, but in I860 the Commissioners of Highways laid out 
Park avenue and in 1867 the Legislature passed an act authorizing 
the improvement of the street. Shortly afterwards Ridge road and 
Rutherfurd avenue were laid out and graded by act of the Legisla- 
ture and gradually 
the remainder o f 
the streets have 
been dedicated by 
t h e various land 
companies and pri- 
vate owners. 

There are a num- 
ber of houses in 
this section which 
antedate the begin- 
ning of this cen- 
tury, but any at- 
tempt to prove 
which is the oldest 

must be at this late period more or less guess work, since no 
record has ever been kept of the building of these houses and a 
number of them have either been rebuilt or altered so that little 
of the original building can be identified. 




18 

The old stone house on Newell avenue near the River road was 
occupied by Jan (John) Juryson or Jurianse. He purchased the 
property in 1711 and refers to the house in his will, dated 1753. 
The same will also refers to the house occupied by his son Juria 
on the Meadow road, which is probably the house now owned by 
Mr. Charles Noller. The house now owned by Mr. Kettell on 
Union avenue was formerly occupied by Jacob Van Northstrand or 
Van Nostrand. He purchased the property in 1716. The resi- 
dence of Mr. Peter H. Kip on Union avenue was owned by Garret 
Van Vorst at the time of the making of his will in 1704, he hav- 
ing purchased the property prior to 1720. The will of Garret 
Van Vorst refers also to the house on Meadow road now occupied 
by Mrs. Miller. 

In November, 1673, a suit was brought by Captain Sandford in 
behalf of Major Nathaniel Kingsland against Major John Berry 
for the recovery of certain hogs which had wandered from the 
premises of said Kingsland. In this action their dwellings are 
described as adjacent, and as at this time Union avenue was the 
only road in existence and there are but two ancient houses on 
this avenue, it is probable that the house now occupied by Mr. 
Kettell was the Kingsland house and the residence of Mr. Peter 
H. Kip was the Berry house. 

The house on Meadow road, in East Rutherford, known as the 
Outwater Homestead, was built prior to 1750 and was occupied 
by Cornelius Van Vorst. The will of Margaret Stagg, dated in 
1698, refers to her two houses, one of which was situated on 
Hackensack street, between the Paterson Plank road and Hoboken 
street, and the other is either the Poillon house or one occupying 
a site very close to it. There are several other houses on the 
Meadow road which were undoubtedly built prior to 1800, as it is 
definitely known that members of the Yereance and Van Riper 
families lived there prior to that period. 



" He that good thinketh, good may do, 
And God will bless him thereunto, 
For when was ever a good deed wrought 
Without a beginning of good thought ?" 

LONG AGO AND LATER. 

GARRABRANT R. ALYEA. 

Between fifty and seventy-five years ago the strip of land lying 
between the Passaic and Hackensack rivers was called New Barba- 
does Neck. There were but two school houses between Hackensack 
and the Bellville Turnpike, a distance of eight miles — one situated 



19 



on the hill above what is now called Carlstadt, the other on the 
River Road, a short distance north of the North Bellville bridge. 
In these all the children in this region, numbering not more than 
eighty, were accommodated. It was not thought a difficult task for 
even the smallest to walk four miles, and only in stormy weather 

was it deemed necessary to 
take them to and from 
school. The Dutch, who 
had settled in this section, 
were as a rule honest, con- 
scientious and religious, 
and, with the qualities of 
industry and frugality, they 
rarely failed to prosper in 
their undertakings. The 
boys were brought up to 
assist in outdoor work, the 
girls to do what was re- 
quired indoors. From the 
flax and wool raised by the 
father and sons the mother 
and daughters spun the 
thread and yarn and wove 
the cloth to be framed into 
garments. No girl was con- 
sidered a suitable candidate for matrimony until she could sew, spin, 
bake and do all other things considered necessary to housewifery at 
that time. The servants were slaves and their children, who had 
been liberated or who were to remain slaves until they arrived at the 
age of twenty-five, in accordance with the slave act of New Jersey. 
The Holland language was spoken more than English, the old people 
and slaves being in many cases unable to speak English well enough to 
make its use of much advantage to them. The men invariably wore 
their hats at table, grace being always said by the oldest, the men re- 
moving their hats, placing them before their faces and replacing them 
after grace had been said. The evenings were spent in the study of 
lessons, the eating of nuts and apples, a game of " fox and geese " 
played with red and white grains of corn, the singing of nursery 
rhymes, and the whole to close with " Now I lay me," and away to 
bed, to rise at the first call the following morning. All this was in 
the Dutch language. The Lord's Prayer and a nursery rhyme, 




20 

found below, will give the reader an idea of the language of the 
Holland Dutch : 

Ouse Vader die in de Hemelen zijt, uwen naem werde 
geheyleght, uw Koninckrijcke kome uwen welle geschiede, 
gelijck in den Hemel alsoo oock op der aerden. Ous 
dagelicks broodt geeft ous heden. En vergeeft ous ouse 
schulden gelijck oock wy vergeben ouse schuldenaren. 
Eude enleyt ous niet in versocckinge maer verlost ous van 
den boosen. Waut uw ist het Koninckrijcke eude de 
nacht, eude de heerlickheyt in der eenwigheyt. Amen. 

Sinte Claus myn goden vriend, 
Ik heb uw altyd wael gediend ; 
Als gy my nu wilt geben, 
Fal ik uw dienen al myn leven. 

A free translation of the above would be : 

Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend, 
To serve you has ever been my end ; 
If something you me now will give, 
Serve you I will, long as I live. 

With environment and teachings such as these, the children could 
not be other than robust, orderly and tractable, and it was not diffi- 
cult for the teacher to maintain the discipline that was the outgrowth 
of proper training at home. The district, then called Boiling 
Springs, about the year 1850 built a schoolhouse on the east side of 
the Meadow Road, a quarter of a mile south of the present Ruther- 
ford depot, large enough to seat fifty pupils. It was furnished 
with a teacher's desk and chair, a wood stove in the centre, around 
which was placed a row of benches without backs for the small chil- 
dren, and a row of desks ranged along the walls, with benches also 
for seats, over which the larger pupil was obliged to step before 
seating himself with his back to the teacher. The teachers of this 
new school were respectively George Brinkerhoff, J. P. Jones, E. 
Vreeland, a Mr. Gow, George Parsell and G. R. Alyea. Before any 
person would be allowed to teach, he was required to procure a 
license from the Town Superintendent, who, together with the trus- 
tees of the district, constituted the Examining Board. The examin- 
ation generally took place at the schoolhouse, where the necessary 
conveniences were supposed to be had, and, as the applicant was 
often the only one thoroughly master of the situation, it may be of 
interest to the reader to describe a teacher's examination of that 
time. At 8 o'clock in the evening the candidate, with the books 
from which he wished to be examined, presented himself at the 



21 

schoolhouse. The room was lighted by two or three tallow candles, 
which gave just light enough to disturb the ghosts of his apprehen- 
sions of success. With fear and trembling, the reading, writing, 
spelling, &o, were usually satisfactorily accomplished. The arith- 
metic, supposed to be the most difficult part of the examination, was 
left until last. The examples were worked out on a part of the wall 
painted black, and with a hickory whipstock the various steps were 
pointed out. 

The school was supported by a charge of twelve shillings (or one 
dollar and a half) per scholar for the quarter, which was collected by 
the teacher from the parents, the balance being paid from funds 
received from the State, augmented by a small district tax. The 
salary was from twenty to thirty dollars per quarter of thirteen 
weeks, thirty dollars being considered a large salary and only paid 
to those having had considerable experience. The teacher could 
either spend a week or two with each family or could procure 
board somewhere near the school. The best board could be obtained 
for two and a half dollars per week. The school was kept open 
the entire year except two weeks in June. 

In less than twenty years after the building of the Boiling Spring 
schoolhouse the population of Rutherford began to increase, and it 
was found necessary to build the Park Avenue school, and later we 
had not only this but the Sylvan Street and Union Avenue schools, 
with further demands, but as the purpose of this article is fulfilled 
in describing the school of the past, suffice it to say that, with the 
increase of scholars and schools, steam or furnace heat instead of 
the wood stove, with comfortable desks and chairs instead of 
benches, lamps or gas instead of candles, and the many other advan- 
tages of to-day, such as globes, charts, libraries and apparatus, the 
conclusion must be that greater knowledge and a nobler manhood 
and womanhood should be the result of the progress of the present 
time. 

THE OLD SCHUYLER MANSION. 

MRS. ARTHUR W. VAN WINKLE. 

The Schuyler Mansion was built over two hundred years ago. 
The bricks were imported from Holland, the floors and staircases 
were of polished oak. Schuyler spent large sums in beautifying tin- 
estate. Balls and house parties were held in the old mansion, atten- 
ded by New York and New Jersey belles and beaux, and sometimes 
the festivities were continued from two to three weeks at a time. 



22 

One of the Schuyler daughters married a Stuyvesant and the house 
became known as the Stuyvesant mansion, originally the main 
entrance was the one opposite Bellville bridge, but another gate was 
opened at the south-west end of the estate, Stuyvesant liked this 
entrance for it was high above the river ; Woodruff, however, who 
owned the adjoining place claimed that the gate and stone wall en- 
croached on his land, he fenced in the entrance and the quarrel was 
carried into the courts. Stuyvesant became disgusted with life in 
the country and went to live in New York city vowing that New 
Jersey should know him no more. 

In 1870 the Stuyvesants sold " Fair Lawn " which at this time was 
only a part of the original Schuyler estate. The new owners added 
a tower and mansard roof to the fine old Colonial mansion but the 
original oak floors and beautiful staircase remain as does the main 
entrance hall 20 feet wide. The bookcases and wainscoting of the 
library which contain the bullet-holes made by the British soldiers 
during the Revolution, have been removed to the modern Schuyler 
residence at Newport. 

[We are also indebted to Mrs. Van Winkle for the following ex- 
tract from a very old letter written by one of the early settlers to a 
friend in England. Eastern New Jersey is described in this wise.] 

"It is a country that provides all things for the support of man in 
a plentiful manner. I have travelled through most of the places 
that are settled and some that are not, and in every place I find this 
country very apt to answer the expectations of the diligent. I have 
seen orchards laden with fruit to admiration, their limbs torn to 
pieces with the weight, and most delicious to the taste, and lovely to 
behold ; and peaches in such plenty that people took their carts a 
peach gathering. As for venison and fowls we have them in great 
plenty. There is some barren land as I suppose there is in most 
places in this world, and more woods than some would have on their 
land. Neither will the country produce corn without labor, nor bread 
be got with idleness, else it would be a brave country indeed." 

In Colonial days this whole region was famous for its apples and 
peaches. 



23 



JOHN RUTHERFURD. 

HENRY H. COPELAND. 

John Rutherfurd, from whom this place derives its name, was the 
owner of a large estate, comprising the property afterwards owned 
by the Rutherfurd Park Association, John J. Pickering and others, 
a large amount of salt meadow lands and a large tract of land on 
the other side of the Passaic River. During his lifetime this prop- 
erty was known as Edgerston Manor, and was so named after the 
family seat in Scotland. The manor house was situated on the 
River Road south of Rutherfurd Avenue and during the life time 
of John Rutherfurd, was the scene of much hospitality and sheltered 
many distinguished visitors, among whom Chief Justice John Jay 
was a frequent guest. After the death of John Rutherfurd, his 
heirs made a partition of the property, the larger part of the 
estate on this side of the river being purchased by Mr. William J. 
Stewart, who conveyed it to the Rutherfurd Park Association, who 
laid out streets through the property, mapped it into lots, and 
turned the manor house into a hotel. The hotel was at first quite 
successful, but the panic of 1873 coming on and a sucide having take 
place within its walls, the business dropped off and it was finally 
destroyed by fire and has never been rebuilt. John Rutherfurd, 
was the son of Walter Rutherfurd, who was an officer in the British 
army at the conquest of Canada, and a member of the Commission 
which in 1772 fixed the boundaries between New Jersey and New 
York. His family was wealthy and honored and occupied a 
prominent position in the early history of this country, and on both 
sides during the Revolutionary War. One of his Uncles Peter Van 
Brough Livingston was President of the Provincial Congress at New 
York. Another Uncle was John Stevens who was the first Vice 
President of New Jersey, serving from 1776 to 1781, and a member 
of the Continental Congress from 1784 to 1785, and a member in 
1772 of the Commission to fix the boundry line between New 
Jersey and New York. 

Another uncle was General John Reid of the British Army. His 
mother was a daughter of James Alexander of the Kings Council of 
New Jersey. He was educated at Princeton College and graduated 
in 177G. Although a young man he took a prominent part in the 
Revolution on the side of the patriots devoting both time and money 
to their cause, for which services large tracts of land in Broome Co., 
New York, and Sussex County, New Jersey, were allotted to him. 
He was elected to the United States Senate on March 4, 1791 and 



24 



served until December 5, 1798, being the fourth Senator elected from 
this State. He was the personal friend of Presidents Washington 
and John Adams, and Chief Justice Jay, all of whom sat for portraits 
for him. He died in 1841. 



" Old wishes, ghosts of broken plans, 
And phantom hopes assemble, 
And the child's heart within the man's 
Begins to throb and tremble." 

— Tennyson. 

REMINISCENCES. 

Mrs Henry Koster gives some account, of her early experiences 
here. She says : When we built our house on Montross Avenue, 
about the year 1861, Union Avenue was but a sandy, narrow, lane- 
like road, while Montross Avenue was really a lane, with a high bank 
on one side and a deep gully on the other. Several trees had to be 
cut down before our lumber could be taken to our grounds, and the 
roads were so bad that the hauling of lumber and other building 
material was very difficult. The only people living near were Mr. 
Tomkins, Mr. Frank Woodward and Mr. Bell. Mr. Koster bought 
six acres of land, but not long after he sold three acres of it to Mr. 
D. B. Ivison, and two or three years later Mr. John Hollister built 
his house on some of this land. The nearest stores, shops and bak- 
eries were in Carlstadt, and we had to be very careful to keep plen- 
tiful supplies of food on hand. Sometimes, however, unexpected 
company would arrive when the supply of bread or meat was 
extremely low. Then we had to exercise our ingenuity in devising 
a way of obtaining the desired articles — usually borrowing of the 
neighbors or sending to Carlstadt for them. The only place for 
religious worship was Union Hall, which was a small wooden build- 
ing, much smaller than the present hall on Ames Avenue, on a steep 
hill, almost as high as Mount Rutherford. Here all denominations 
met and worshipped together. In either end of this hall was a stove, 
which gave out more smoke than heat. The seats were pine benches 
with reversible backs. The walls were bare and there was no carpet. 
There was a pulpit on a raised platform, and this was all the church 
we had for several years — quite a contrast to the churches of the 
present time. It was difficult, not to say dangerous, to drive to the 
door of Union Hall when the ground was icy, as was often the case 
in winter. The horses found it very difficult to climb the steep 
ascent, even if they were sharp shod, ever so carefully. Mr. Daniel 
Van Winkle, when the snow or mud was very deep, would drive to 



25 

church with his farm wagon or sled, drawn by oxen — good-naturedly 
calling for his neighbors and friends on the way, and especially 
taking in the children. There was a Sunday School, numbering at first 
from thirty to fifty or sixty children, under the care of Mr. Floyd W. 
Tomkins, who was a very excellent Superintendent. The Sunday 
School began September 20th, 1858, and the anniversary of this day 
was always celebrated by a picnic, which was a very grand affair, 
and was held in Mr. Daniel Van Winkle's woods on the top of 
Mount Rutherford, where now stand the houses occupied by Mr. 
Blackwood, Mr. Doubleday, Mr. Charles Van Winkle and others. If 
it rained the picnic was by no means given up, but was held in a 
barn or some other convenient building near the grounds. It was 
an all-day affair, with dinner at noon and tea or supper towards 
night. The bill of fare for the dinner was very elaborate — roast 
beef, chickens, boiled ham, vegetables, etc., with an unlimited supply 
of puddings, pies, cakes, sweetmeats, etc. Some of the parents and 
friends went as early as eight o'clock in the morning and attended to 
the preparation and arrangement of the grounds, meals, etc., and all 
the older people were usually in attendance during the day, and all 
had a good time. About 10 A. M. Mr. Tomkins would meet his 
Sunday School children at Union Hall and march with them in 
procession to the picnic grounds. There they had games and sports 
until twelve, when dinner was served. Mrs. Koster assures us that 
the children were all well behaved. After dinner the children 
amused themselves until three o'clock, when Mr. Tomkins called 
them to order and the important exercises of the day began — 
addresses, recitations, songs and hymns. After these they had 
supper, in which cake and ice-cream played an important part. New 
Years Eve Mr. Tomkins had an entertainment for the children, with 
singing, recitations, &c. Mr. Tomkins' sons and daughters were a 
great help to him in all these things. At the close of the New Year 
entertainment each child was given a book. Mr. Tomkins said the 
books came from a friend — the older people knowing this " friend " 
to be Mr. Tomkins himself. Various rewards of merit. were given to 
the children. Mr. Arthur W. Van Winkle has a very large and 
handsome Bible, which was his reward for not having missed a sin- 
gle day at Sunday School in five years. The people were all neigh- 
borly and hospitable with each other in those days. Sociables were 
frequent, held at the different houses, and all had a good time, 
meeting and talking with friends and neighbors. 

Mrs. William Haywood, though not one of the earliest settlers, 
still came quite early enough to find Rutherford entirely " in the 



S6 



rough." She speaks of an entertainment given by Miss Tomkins to 
help defray the expense of improving Union Hall for church pur- 
poses. She also describes the Sunday School picnic in glowing 
terms — says it was a festivity in which everybody, young and old, 
joined with great enthusiasm and pleasure. Her husband, the late 
William Haywood, often took their cabinet organ in his wagon to the 
picnic grove to lead the children in singing. She remembers also 
seeing the green corn for their fine picnic dinner cooked in a wash 
boiler. 

After the building of Grace Church Mr. Haywood, besides per- 
forming many other valuable services to the church, acted as sexton 
for a long time without remuneration, and many times when he was 
ill Mrs. Haywood would put on his boots and cross the rough fields 
between their house and Grace Church, in the midst of wintry winds 
and snows, to ring the bell and attend to the fires and make every- 
thing right for the coming service. Grace Church ought, indeed, to 
be a success with such metal in its pioneers as these and some other 
of its members were made of. 

When ground was broken in the summer of 1890 for the transept 
added to the church in that year, Mrs. Haywood was very appropri- 
ately called upon to lift the first shovel full of soil from the spot 
designated for it. 

Mrs. Isaac S. Lord, daughter of the late Henry Outwater, adds to 
our " reminiscences " as follows : She says that "Boiling Springs" 

derived its name 
from a spring loca- 
ted on the Outwater 
farm. It was a very 
clear, pure, bubbling 
spring, and gave its 
name to the sur- 
rounding country. 
She remembers as a 
child hearing an ac- 
count of the opening 
of the Erie Rail- 
road. When the first 
locomotive passed 
through Boiling 
Springs the farmers and men at work in the fields dropped their 
farming implements and waved their hats and shouted in excitement, 
and many people followed after the engine, running as far as they 




27 

could see it. This occurred in 1832. The first public school- 
house was built in 1852 on Meadow road and it has been only very 
recently demolished. School began the 19th of April of the same 
year, with Mr. James P. Jones as teacher. As there was no church 
in these early times in Boiling Springs, the farmers were in the habit 
of driving to Passaic Church. One Sunday in the year 1853, Mr. 
and Mrs. Peter Outwater, Mrs. Henry Outwater and Mr. Jones, 
while returning from Passaic Church, were " held up " on the Boiling 
Springs road, now Union avenue, by two desperate characters who 
had just escaped from Governors Island. One of the robbers held a 
pistol close to the faces of the occupants of the carriage, while the 
other stood at the corner of the road and watched for any one that 
might approach from either direction. When the booty was secured 
both robbers escaped into the woods with which that whole region 
was then covered, while the despoiled and frightened occupants of 
the carriage drove rapidly to the nearest and almost only house in 
that vicinity — the one now occupied by Mr. Kettell. From there 
the alarm was immediately sent out, and soon large numbers of men 
— citizens of all sorts, especially farmers, with farm hands and other 
workmen — armed with guns, pistols, clubs, pitchforks and various 
other farming implements, gathered in pursuit of the robbers. Late 
in the afternoon they were captured in the woods near where they 
had committed their depredations, were taken to Hackensack and 
sentenced to three and five years imprisonment. Captain Outwater 
was the grandfather of Mr. Henry Outwater. He was an officer in 
the army of the Revolution and at one time, with a command of 
about thirty men, he encountered a much larger force of British near 
Moonachie, but by some skilful management he made it appear that 
he had a very large number of men under him, and so thoroughly 
were the English deceived that they fled post haste and did not 
slacken their speed until they were again in safe quarters in New 
York city. Captain Outwater's son, Richard Outwater, built the old 
homestead of stone on the Hackensack road in 1821. He was at 
one time a teacher, and was afterwards Senator for three years. He 
was also something of a poet, as this little poem, addressed to his 
pupils and preserved by one of his granddaughters, will show : 

" When I'm at home and not at school 
I wish you all would make it a rule 

To leave my books alone. 
Money is scarce and books are dear, 
Therefore forbear my books to tear, 

I charge you, every one." 

He died May G, 1858, at a very advanced age. His son Henry, 
father of Mrs. Lord, succeeded him in the old stone homestead and 



28 

reared a family of three daughters there. Part of the Outwater farm 
was sold in 1859 to the late Mr. Floyd W. Tomkins, and about the 
same time he established in the little white schoolhouse the Sunday 
School which, with himself, seems to be so reverently and lovingly 
remembered by all who knew him and it. He planted in faith and 
love, but doubtless "better than he knew." Only the God "who 
giveth the increase " can know the full result of his beautiful and 
noble labors here. 

Many incidents have been carefully treasured by those who were 
members of the Sunday School at that time. One Sunday a visitor 
offered a prize to the pupil who could repeat without mistake the 
84th Psalm. Mrs. Lord, then little Catherine Outwater, and her 
sister Anne, now Mrs. Cadmus, as well as some others, repeated it, 
but as Mrs. Cadmus was the first to give it perfectly she received the 
prize, which is still most carefully treasured. This circumstance, 
with many other similar ones, and the vivid remembrance in which 
they are held, show how thorough was the Bible instruction given 
by Mr. Tomkins and his assistants. About this time Mr. Daniel 
Van Winkle gave the land upon which Union Hall was built, also 
the land for the Erie Railroad station and for the street from Union 
Avenue to Meadow Road. After the building of Union Hall the 
Sunday School was transferred to it from the small schoolhouse. 
After that it was called Union Sunday School and all denomina- 
tions joined in it for several years. 

Mr. Charles L. Parker says that thirty-one years ago only five 
houses could be seen from the Rutherford station of the Erie Rail- 
road. 

The works of God are fair for naught 

Unless our eyes in seeing 
See hidden in the thing the thought 

That animates its being. 

— Tilt on. 

THE HACKENSACK MEADOWS. 

T. N. GLOVER. 

The Hackensack meadows are interesting in many ways. They 
form a famous tramping ground for botanists and have furnished 
specimens for all the great herbaria of the world. Very rich are 
they in sphagna and ferns that grow in moist places. As late as the 
beginning of the present century, many parts were covered with 
dense woods, remains of which can now be seen in the stumps of 
trees lying half buried in mud. The ties used in building the 
Jersey Central and the Pennsylvania railroads were dug out of the 



29 



road bed and the old Bellville road was cut through a thick forest. 
During the Revolution they furnished many hundred loads of wood 
for the people of New York city. They have never been very 
famous for their animal life, although entomologists have taken very 
fine insects in the vicinity of Snake Hill and Rutherford. An old 
writer says they harbored the "one-eyed unicorn" and the "kyngly 
lyon," but no remains of them have ever been found. To the 
geologist they are as interesting as to the botanist, and indeed the 
latter must appeal to him for help in solving many of his problems. 

The first thing about them that strikes the ordinary observer 
is the mud — mostly blue clay ; in some places pure enough for 
brick, in most, not. In some places it is deep : at Mehrhoffs near 
Little Ferry, it goes down 80 feet ; near Carlstadt depot 30 feet, and 
along the lines of the Erie and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 
railroads 10, 12 and 14 feet. In the deepest parts of the river, there 
is no mud, simply gravel. This and some other facts lead to the 
conclusion that this mud is only superficial. The rock floor is very 
uneven — in many places rising above the surface but generally keep- 
ing far below it. It is composed not of the common red sandrock 
(new red sandstone or Newark formation) but of a gray metamor- 
phic rock, probably older. A few localities are worth considering. 
(1) The plain on which the village of Hackensack stands — sand. 
It extends back to the base of the hills. (2) Secaucus, ledges of 
rock come to the surface or are covered lightly. The hill seen from 
the Erie trains going eastward and known as Mount Pinhorne is 
built of different materials from the Hackensack plain. The ledges 
look as if they had been planed down by some force. (3) Snake 
Hill— Little Snake Hill is a knob of trap (Palisade) rock which 
rises right up out of the marsh. Snake Hill proper is also a knob 
of trap but on the top and west side is a gray sandstone containing 
fossils. (4) In East Rutherford, near the crossing of Park avenue 
and Main street, is a gravel pit which shows the action of waves 
beating on a sea beach. These and others which could be cited 
show that the meadows lie in a gorge ploughed out by ice in the 
form of a glacier whose top must have been a thousand feet above 
the land surface, that it excavated the more deeply where the rock 
was the softer but could not grind down the hard bases of Secaucus 
and of Snake Hills, which even now show ice scratches on their 
sides. The sandstone cap of Snake Hill is the remains of the old 
preglacial filling of the valley and Mt. Pinhorne is the old unmodi- 
fied drift. A very fine view of one of these old formations is shown 
in the gravel and clay bank just before entering the Erie tunnel 



30 

Then came the melting of this glacier, the debouching of its main 
river into still water which formed the sandplain of Hackensack, 
and then the whirling and eddying which such a flood would cause 
gives the gravel bank of East Rutherford. All this proceeding goes 
on to-day on a smaller scale in the Alps. There was a period of 
quiet as of to-day — the clay deposited, the plants take root and grow, 
and how many thousand years bring it down to the present time no 
one knows. The theory has been broached that they lie along the line 
of a great crack in the earth crust — which may be true ; that would 
make less work for the ice. The surface of the meadows is grow- 
ing harder and the water ways are becoming each year better de- 
fined. When the present trenches were cut no one knows, but the 
meadows were surveyed and assigned to owners (previously they 
had been common lands) by the Hornblower and Dunham survey of 
1702, of which the map still exists. 

During the Revolution, British and tory troops harassed parts of 
it, notably Moonachie. Secaucus is one of the old settlements of 
New Jersey. Its patent dates from 1033. In 1079 part of it came 
into possession of John Pinhorne, a wealthy New York merchant 
who afterwards became a justice of the then supreme court of the 
colony. He soon made such a success of his plantation that it was 
described in England as a model farm. His name survives in Mt. 
Pinhorne. Hackensack is probably as old. In 1839, the Swartout 
defalcation in the New York custom house aggregating over a 
million of dollars was discovered and became a political war cry. 
Swartout, the collector, was an intimate friend of President Jackson 
and one of his party managers. Most of the missing money was 
spent in improving these meadows, and many of the ditches and 
dykes which he constructed are still in existence. 



It will no doubt be gratifying to the many friends of the 
late Mr. Floyd W. Tomkins to read the following extract 
from a letter written by his own hand not many months ago. 
The energy and earnestness which characterized his noble 
work in Rutherford forty years ago are plainly manifested in 
the few lines presented. 

293 Van Buren St., Brooklyn, N. Y., Mar. 21, 1898. 
Rev. Henry M. Ladd. 

My Dear Sir. — In reply to your favor of the 18th inst. I will 
give you a bit of personal history which may be of use to you. I 
claim to be the pioneer of Rutherford. There was here and there 



31 

a farm house but the occupants are all gone. Peter Kip was a boy 
and may remember when Elliott was his Sunday School teacher. 
The railroad station was a triangular brick box at the corner where 
the trains stopped to take in water. Charles Ingersoll was agent, he 
is living yet. 

April 2, 1858, I moved with my family (wife and five children) to 
Boiling Springs as it was then called, and made our home in the 
little stone cottage on the hill in Union Avenue just above Montross 
Avenue having bought it with twenty-five acres of land. In a short 
time I bought 75 acres more on Union Avenue and had it surveyed 
and a map made of " Villa Sites at Boiling Springs, N. J." We, my 
family and I drove to Bellville to church. In 1859 we started a 
" Union Sunday School," and I was made superintendent and some 
of my children were made teachers. Elliott was then just completing 
his college course in New York City College. The Sunday School 
was very successful; I kept it up for ten years. The Presbyterians 
came in and I helped them, the Methodists ditto, then having a few 
church people with us I thought to start our own church and asked 
the Bishop's advice, but the Rutherfurd farm having been bought 
and laid out, and Park Avenue being cut through with the idea of 
making that locality "Rutherfurd Park," while we were only the 
Station. This we fought by calling the station " Rutherfurd Park." 
But they got ahead of us in organizing a church in the old Ruther- 
furd mansion turned into a hotel, I was not present at the organi- 
zation but was elected a vestryman. 

Yours very truly, 

F. W. Tomkins. 



This whole region was called by the Indians Nighiticoke. 
RUTHERFORD IN '62. 

RICHARD SHUGO. 

Rutherford in and about the year '62 differed materially from the 
borough of to-day, in name, topographically and socially. It was 
known as Boiling Springs, not on account of the temperature of its 
waters but from their copious discharge. These springs were on 
both sides of the railroad and have long since been covered over. 
The depot, a small gable roof, primitive shaped building, stood on 
the eastern side of the railroad at the corner of Union Avenue, at 
that day a mere lane. 

A new depot, however was being erected, the one so recently re- 
moved to give place to the present more commodious and ornate 



structure. As to its topographical aspect, looking westward from 
this depot two modest looking hills completely shut out a view of 
the lands lying beyond them. The more southerly one is now 
dignified by the name of Mount Rutherford, the other a smaller one 
arose in a depressed conelike shape directly back of the depot, 
although the lesser in size the more honored of the two, in that on 
its apex stood the emblem of the intelligence and spirituality of the 
village, Union Hall, the place of assemblage for the Union Church 
and Sunday School of Boiling Springs. This building still remains 
being part of the present Hall on Ames Avenue, having been lowered 
to its present level. Between these sister hills was a deep ravine at 
once giving greater height and dignity to the hills than is now per- 
ceptible, and effecting a complete drainage of a large section of 
back land. On the laying out and grading of the lands around the 
depot by the Mt. Rutherfurd Company the smaller hill was cut down 
to fill up this ravine where it was crossed by Orient Way avenue and 
by the Home Land Company in forming the plateau through which 
runs Ames Avenue. A filling at Orient Way gave opportunity for 
the forming of a picturesque lake-like pond called Glen Waters, fed 
by living springs and fringed on its southern side by a cluster of 
noble elms. Here in its waters was baptised the first convert of the 
Rutherfurd Baptist Church. This lake was given to the town by 
the Mt. Rutherfurd Company. Subsequently, however, it was filled 
up from the fear of its producing malaria. 

Park Avenue was laid out to connect the Rutherford depot with 
the lands of the Rutherfurd Park Association lying on the Passaic 
River. Subsequently an effort was made to widen this Avenue from 
its present sixty-six feet to eighty feet and the land of many owners 
was freely offered without cost for this purpose, but one or two 
owners insisting on remuneration the matter was dropped. Improve- 
ments went rapidly on, a post office was established in Mr. Collerd's 
store — Van Winkle building. The first postmaster, Mr. Richard 
Hoe Barrows, an agent of the company, receiving the princely salary 
of fifteen dollars per annum. Concerning its real estate peculiarities 
while yet in the sixties, several of the citizens feeling that Rutherford 
offered many advantages as a residence to city business men, united 
with some New Yorkers in forming a land company known as the 
Mount Rutherfurd Company and purchased one hundred acres of 
upland of Mr. Daniel Van Winkle at the then unprecedented price 
of one thousand dollars per acre. 

This sale gave great impetus to real estate operations for miles 
around Rutherford. Previous to this farm land was rated at from 



33 







to 1300 per acre. It was under this condition that the following 
conversation took place. Farmer Kipp the father of the present 
Mr. Peter Kip was standing with a neighbor on Union Avenue. 

Said he : " Mr. S years ago some of my relatives bought land 

on Bergen Hill and to-day it is very valuable," and pointing to his 
own broad lands lying south and west he added, " I expect to see 
the day when this land will be worth $-±00 per acre." Improvements 
came and this same worthy farmer sold several acres of this farm to 
New York capitalists at $2,000 per acre. His dream was realized. 

Persons acquainted with the streets of Rutherford will notice that 
Chestnut Street at its junction with Passaic and Park Avenue makes 

a sudden and awkward 
break. On the original plan 
this was not the case, the 
northern half was sixty feet 
east of its present position. 
At that time two fine maple 
trees grew near what is now 
Franklin Place, nearly op- 
posite each other and about 
forty feet apart on the land 
of farmer Kipp. Mr. Kipp 
was a great admirer of those 
trees, and expressed a strong 
desire that should a street 
pass through his land it 
should be between those two 
trees. To meet his wishes 
the northern part of Chest- 
nut street was shifted to 
where it is. These trees with many others fell victims to the vandal- 
ism of later street grading. 

Religiously and socially considered, among the earliest settlers 
were the Messrs. Randolph, Tomkins, Jones and Westervelt, with 
their families, all more or less co-workers in the Sunday School of 
the place, Messrs. Ivison, Crane and Shugg were later arrivals, 
followed by the Messrs. Hollisters, Stewarts, Collerd and Koster, 
also the Messrs. Kellett, Hussey, Bookstaver, Yates, Hink and 
Cooper. After the arrival of Messrs. Ivison and Crane, a Presby- 
terian society was organized, many of the place irrespective of 
sect aiding the enterprise. The Sunday School still continued to be 
Union — all worshiping in Union Hall. From this Union Sunday 



\TT" [ M 



../jfmnL 




34 



School sprang all the denominations of the town, Presbyterian, 
Episcopalian, Baptists and Methodists. 

Rutherford in its early history was a unit. Caste in a great 
measure was laid aside, every one knew every one, and every new- 
comer of respectability was met with wholesome fraternal feeling. 
The religious element predominating, all new comers were expected 
to attend Divine Service— the non-attendant being a marked charac- 
ter. 



" Error is not the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having 
lain neglected." — -John Locke. 

EARLY RUTHERFORD, '67. 

EDWARD W. DEAN. 

In complying with the request to give some account of my early 
experience in what is now called Rutherford, I write wholly from 
memory, therefore do not guarantee that any dates I may mention 
are strictly correct. In May, 1867, I came to Boiling Springs to 
look at the summer hotel constructed from the Rutherford mansion 
on the River Road. This hotel was located just below the bridge, 
at the foot of what is now Rutherford Avenue, said bridge, also the 
D. L. & W. R. R. bridge were built some years after. 

The drive from the Erie R. R. station through what is now Union 
Avenue to the river, and thence along to the hotel through the 
woods, with glimpses of the silvery Passaic filled me with en- 
thusiasm for the country. I secured accommodations at the hotel 
for the summer and occupied them the middle of June. During 
that summer Park Avenue was opened, the river was clear and 
boating parties day and evening moved over its glassy surface. 
The contour of the country in every direction pleased and satisfied 
me, its near access to New York and the fact that my first place of 
business in New York City was in Chambers Street, led me to de- 
cide upon what was then known as Rutherfurd Park as a residence. 

Hence I bought land in the summer of 1867 and began to build 
that Fall, my residence being ready for occupancy in the Fall of '68. 
In the Spring of '68 we were boarders at the Vreeland house now 
known as the " Cherry Tree Home." During the first ten years of my 
residence here, homes were few and far between. For social life we 
were dependent on each other and so constituted social and literary 
clubs, and without street lights and sidewalks, and the worst of mud 
roads to wade through, we kept the social and church side going. 
What is now known as the Lyndhurst Chapel, under the care 



35 



of the Presbyterian Church, was erected by a corporation known as 
the School and Hall Association, its prime object being to have a 
place of worship for the Episcopal Church, as it was in proximity to 
the hotel, and summer patrons would aid in sustaining it. A fine 
room, which is now used for Church services, was prepared on the 
second floor, and by contributions of visitors, land owners and some 
of those in Rutherfurd Park, who desired to break away from the 
Union services in Union Hall and have their own church it was 
started. This was soon abandoned as a place for religious services. 
The lower floor was arranged for a private school and a few families 
only availed themselves of the advantages offered. The building 
soon fell into disuse and decay and after many changes was pur- 
chased by its present owners. At the same time the Methodist, 
Baptist and Presbyterian elements withdrew from the Union servi- 
ces and established themselves, and the vicissitudes of the several 
societies or sects are a part of the history of the place, which I will 
not dilate upon. When the matter of church and school came to 
be considered, which in being enamored of the location I had chosen 
for a home I had overlooked, I was astonished to find that in only 
nine miles from New York city I was really in the woods and almost 
in heathendom, but the die had been cast, I could drive to Bellville 
or Passaic or go to New York to church, but my judgment said that 
having come here to make a home I must aid in making a church 

home. Union Hall was 
fitted with a smoky stove 
and pine benches. It 
stood on a knoll and it 
was impossible to drive up 
to the door in bad wea- 
ther. It was also very 
difficult to drive to the 
station and my carriage 
has often been stalled 
during the Spring months 
on account of the mud. 
From the Rutherford of 
to-day to the one I 
came into thirty years ago the contrast is as great as between the 
Adirondack region and New York city. We had in these early 
years as much privacy in our house as could be found in any woods. 
Ten or twelve years ago many people from New York city and other 
places came to find a home here, and soon we had votes enough in 




36 

the town to carry the improvements essential to a desirable place of 
residence by furnishing good roads, a good water supply, well 
lighted streets, &:c. &c. Those who have come here during the past 
ten years have little idea of the rural look and methods which pre- 
vailed during the first twenty years of my residence here. 



" That thou mayst injure no one dovelike be, 
And serpent like that no one injure thee." 

— Coivper. 

RUTHERFORD IN 71. 

W. P. ELLIOTT. 

The writer of this moved to Rutherford from New York in the 
month of October, 1871. The name of the place was then Ruther- 
furd Park. It was afterwards changed to Rutherford. 

It might be asked why the name of Rutherfurd Park was chosen. 
There was no park observable to the visiting stranger who alighted 
from the railroad train at the station bearing that name, and the 
reply as to "where the park was " generally elicited the information 
that " you could see it all around," which the writer heard many, 
times in his experience. In the light of the scattered dwellings and 
long stretches of country roads, it was quite easy to see everywhere 
around about a park literally, and, perhaps, the name was not a 
misnomer. 

The railroad company in those days was, if not so liberal in the 
number of trains as now, more liberal in the rates to commuters, who 
could secure for $49.25 a ticket which was available for as many 
rides within the ensuing year from its issue as the holder thereof might 
choose to avail himself of. 

It was a great pleasure also, then, to be able to meet and recog- 
nize all of the Rutherford passengers on the trains, whereas now 
most of them are strangers to one another. 

In the rapid growth and expansion of our place within the past 
five or ten years it has seemed a hard matter, sometimes, to become 
acquainted with, or even informed of the name of, one's next-door 
neighbor, and in some cases, perhaps, new comers have formed an 
idea that they were neglected in church or social associations. 

The churches of the various denominations have always been, and 
are now, glad to receive and welcome accessions to their numbers 
from any or all of the new comers, and certainly these should recog- 
nize that a great debt of gratitude is due to the old residents, who 
looked ahead and provided in advance for the needs of the future. 



37 



Within the memory of many of its residents it may be recalled 
that attendance at the various places of worship was accompanied 
by the discomfort and inconvenience of walking through muddy or 
dusty roads, with no sidewalks or street lights of any kind, and, in 
most cases, at night with an oil lantern and a faithful dog for com- 
panions. 

The congregations of the churches at that time seemed, however, 
more like a family, where one and another met who knew each other 
and could with reason join in that glorious old hymn, " Blest be the 
tie that binds our hearts in Jesus' love." There was a general 
observance of the Lord's day as a day of rest, as well as of attend- 
ance on the services of the church, and Sunday had not passed into 
a day which now seems to mean recreation or social gatherings in 
various forms. 

A Union Sunday School had been established and held in the 
building still known as Union Hall, situated on Ames avenue near 
Park avenue, and in '71 services were held, in addition to those of 
the Sunday Schools, by two religious denominations in the Hall, 
twice a day, on Sundays. Upstairs the services were those of Grace 
P. E. Church, which had been established as a parish but was with- 
out a church building, and downstairs there were those of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. It was not an unfrequent occurrence, par- 
ticularly in the summer time, that the sounds of hearty singing or 
loud praying or preaching downstairs would take precedence of the 
more subdued utterances upstairs, but the heartiest good feeling, 
without friction, always prevailed. Grace Church, and also the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, have, after a varied experience, since 

then become firmly estab- 
lished and possessed of 
fine edifices in most desi- 
rable locations and are 
apparently in a most 
flourishing condition. 

The growth of the 
churches has been in ac- 
cord with that of the 
place and Rutherford now 
can offer facilities to the 
churchgoer of nearly 
every denomination in ap- 
propriate and commodious edifices and attractive services. 

But, not to dwell upon the past, it may be safely said that few 




places situated within the same distance from New York possess so 
many advantages as Rutherford. 

Its days of muddy or dusty roads, sidewalks of earth or wood, 
and streets of darkness have passed away, and the days of graded 
and macadamized roads, sewers, gas, electric lights and stone side- 
walks now prevail. 

The Erie Railroad Company provides good and frequent service 
to its patrons, and at reasonable rates. 

Thus far political or religious views of any distinct phase have not 
predominated in the government of the Borough or its schools, and 
it seems to be at present a place where a poor man of good princi- 
ples and conduct can make himself soon known and felt and gladly 
welcomed by the old residents generally. Truly, a good place to 
live. 



" Woe to that bold soul, that hopeth if it do but let Thee go, to find something 
better than Thee. It turneth hither and thither, on this side and on that, and all 
things are hard and bitter unto it." 

— Confessions of St. Augustine. 

EAST RUTHERFORD. 

JACOB H. VREELAND. 

Before describing East Rutherford as it is at present, let us glance 
backward for a moment at its inception, even though we take you 
back over two hundred years. From a history of Bergen County 
we learn that that portion of the ancient territory of Bergen known 
as New Barbadoes Neck, extended from the intersection of the 
Hackensack and Passaic rivers to a point northward as far as the 
town of Hackensack. (This of course included what is now 
Rutherford and East Rutherford). This neck of land was probably 
first settled by the Kingslands. It is not certain that Judge 
William Sandford ever settled upon his patent in this part of 
the county. Nathaniel Kingsland, the ancestor of the Kingsland 
family of New Barbadoes, purchased a large tract of land from 
Judge Sandford ; his son William was the first to settle upon it 
about 1690. He emigrated from the island of Barbadoes and built 
a substantial mansion (which is still standing a few hundred feet 
south of the machine shops of the D., L. & W. R. R. at Kingsland), 
two miles above the Schuyler copper mines. Edmund Kingsland, a 
grandson of Nathaniel Kingsland, was taken prisoner by the British 
during the Revolutionary war and confined in the old sugar house 
in New York for some time. The Kingsland family plate was 
buried during the war at the foot of a pear tree near the mansion. 



39 

The English and Hessians took possession of the house and occu- 
pied it for several months. Mr. Kingsland had previously hollowed 
out a board in the mantel piece and secreted his money in it, put in a 
block and painted it over. He found the money undisturbed on his 
return from imprisonment. 

The Kingslands were Episcopalians and through their instru- 
mentality the church of that faith was built at Bellville. John 
Richards, connected with the Kingsland family by marriage, owned 
a large tract of land a part of which is now Rutherford and East 
Rutherford. He was murdered in the Bergen woods while returning 
from New York, by refugees during the Revolutionary war. 

About the year 1700, Arent Schuyler purchased a part of the 
Kingsland tract, and the copper mines were afterward discovered 
by one of the Schuyler slaves. 

The discovery of the copper mine together with other large 
landed interests made him wealthy. The old Schuyler mansion 
stood on the east bank of the Passaic river just below the Bellville 
bridge. The house was more than once visited and violated by the 
British, and pictures pierced by British bayonets are still preserved 
among the descendants. 

We will now proceed to East Rutherford and its landmarks. 
East Rutherford, prior to 1893 was a part of Rutherford proper, 
about this time an act was passed by the legislature creating the 
borough of East Rutherford, bounded on the north by the Hoboken 
road, on the south by the Erie R. R., on the east by the Hackensack 
river and on the west by the Passaic river ; its present population is 
about 3000. How few of the thousands of the inhabitants of the 
Rutherfords realize the actual existence of the old Indian boiling 
spring, located on Union avenue about 300 feet east of the cross- 
ing of the Erie R. R., it is there to-day furnishing an unlimited 
supply of the purest and sweetest of water. In old times it was 
surrounded by beautiful grassy mounds and around this bubbling 
fountain, for successive ages, gathered the tribes of red men to hold 
their yearly councils, there also, we venture to add, that many a coy 
Indian maiden plighted her nuptial vows for it was a veritable 
trysting place for the natives. Many an Indian relic has been 
found on the grounds surrounding this famous spring, such as flint 
arrow heads, stone axes, pipes, mortars, etc., etc. The writer can 
well remember when as a boy the total train service to New York 
consisted of three trains daily, at 9 a. m., 12 m. and 4 p. m., two 
engines comprised the entire motive power ; when the railroad was 
first completed and for some time afterward the coaches were drawn 



40 

by horses, with the driver sitting comfortably on top ; after a while 
two small locomotives were built in Baltimore and superseded the 
horses ; a pumping station was built about on the site where " Justs 
Hotel " now stands, the water was drawn from an underground vein 
of the boiling spring, and two boys were employed to pump it into 
an elevated tank which supplied water for the two locomotives. 

What is East Rutherford now was comprised at that time of five 
or six old fashioned farm houses, to-day we have hundreds of fine 
residences besides a magnificent school house costing over $20,000, 
and also a large frame school room in the western part of the 
borough ; a fine engine house, equipped with all the modern appli- 
ances, furnishing rooms for public meetings, etc. on the upper floors, 
electric lights, gas, water, and all the conveniences to make its in- 
habitants comfortable ; we have also a very prosperous and success- 
ful Building and Loan Association in our midst ; an electric light 
plant in successful operation, furnishing hundreds of electric lights 
for Rutherford, East Rutherford and Carlstadt ; a fully equipped 
gas house is in operation also. 

In conclusion we will say that the first settlers in this town were 
farmers and emigrated from Holland, among the names of these 
settlers we will mention the Van Winkles, Vreelands, Kipps, 
Outwaters, etc., they have long ago crossed the dark river, but the 
descendants are with us to-day. 



" The long night dies, the welcome gray 
Of dawn we see. 
Speed up the heavens Thy perfect day, 
God of the free !" 

— Whittier. 

SLAVERY IN NEW JERSEY. 

We are accustomed to think of slavery as belonging to the very 
distant past. We know as a matter of history that it did exist, but 
it has passed away so utterly that it is almost impossible for us to 
realize that not very many years ago men, women and children, 
human beings, with souls as well as bodies, were bought and sold 
like brutes or merchandise to the highest bidder, in the very places 
that we inhabit and frequent now. Slavery in the Northern and 
Middle States was undoubtedly always much milder in form than 
Southern slavery ever was, but in the nature of things it had its 
horrors. 

Small misdemeanors, that would have received comparatively 
light condemnation in a white man, were visited with frightful pen- 
alties in the black. From many instances recorded of severe 
punishments inflicted on slaves, we mention two or three. In 1735 



41 

a slave struck his master and threatened further violence. This 
occurred on Wednesday. The negro was arrested, and after the 
mere form of a trial was burned at the stake on Saturday of the 
same week in front of the Court House in Hackensack, then called 
Quacksack. The county paid to the owner the value of the slave, 
estimated at £45, also the expense of the trial and execution. Two 
other slaves, for stealing from a private residence, were sentenced to 
500 lashes each, to be administered on five successive Saturdays, 100 
lashes each day. One of the negroes died on the fourth Saturday ; the 
other survived the whole punishment. In 1769 a negro was sentenced 
to nine whippings on nine successive days — receiving in all one hun- 
dred and seventeen lashes. We are indebted to Mrs. J. R. Collerd 
for a bill of sale of a negro in the year 1810, in which Joseph Munn, 
of the Township of Newark, County of Essex, State of New Jersey, 
" for the sum of #275, does bargain, sell and deliver to John Wil- 
liams a negro man named Jem." " To have and to hold the said 
negro unto the said John Williams, his heirs, administrators, execu- 
tors and assigns forever." Poor " Jem " probably came into the 
world too soon to be benefitted by a law passed by the Legislature 
in 1820 — ten years after he was condemned by the terms of his sale 
to remain a slave " forever." 

The act is as follows : " Be it enacted by the Council and Gen- 
eral Assembly of this State, and it is hereby enacted by the 
authority of the same, that every child born of a slave within 
this State since July 4, 1804, shall be free, but shall remain ser- 
vant of the owner of his or her mother, and shall continue in such 
service, if a male, until the age of twenty-five years — if a female 
until the age of twenty-one." In 1846 a law was passed providing 
for the final abolition of slavery in 1849. Therefore, less than fifty 
years ago there were slaves in the State of New Jersey. 

Mr G. R. Alyea has preserved the following bill of sale, bear- 
ing date Newark, Feb. 17, 1837 : 

This is to Certify that I, Garrabrant Yereance, of the County 
of Essex and City of Newark, have Bargend and Sold unto Cor- 
nelius Brinkerhoff, of the Township of Lodi and County of Bergen, 
a Negro Boy named Jack, Aged thirteen Years, in the Sum of two 
hundred Dollars, the Receipt whereof I acknowledge when paid 
to have and hold the Said Boy as his own property and use until 
he becomes the Age of twenty-five and then to be Set at liberty 
as his own Master, According to Law. 

Giving under my hand the 17th day of February One thousand 
Eight hundred and Thirty seven. 1837. Garrabrant Yereance. 

Let us hope that '' Jack " lived to enjoy the freedom granted 
to him by this beneficent law. 

It is recorded that in 1684 Richard Berry was married to Nidonia, 
daughter of Capt. William Sandford, all belonging to the families of 
the first settlers in this region. The wedding presents to the bride 
and bridegroom were a family of negroes to each from their 
respective parents, each of the two negro families consisting of 
father, mother and several children. 



GRACE CHURCH, RUTHERFORD, N. J. 



43 



TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE OPENING OF GRACE CHURCH. 

REV. HENRY M. LADD. 

Rutherford, N. J.. October 9, 1898. 

" There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your 
calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above 
all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace 
according to the measure of the gift of Christ." — Ephesians, iv.. 4 7. 

Institutions, as well as individuals, live and grow, and their 
growth is little, if any, less marvellous than that of a person. All 

growth starts with a feeble beginning — a 
tiny spark of life — which, as it unfolds 
and gains strength, gathers to itself a 
body, which expresses, with more or less 
exactness, the bigness and character of 
the life. Birthdays are simply annual 
development, and are none the less sig- 
nificant because of their familiarity. The 
periods which mark a year's life of in- 
stitutions are reckoned by larger periods of 
time. To-day we commemorate one such. 
Twenty-five years ago Friday, October 7, 
the little stone building, which began at yonder door and ended 
where the transepts start, was opened for public worship 
by a meeting of the Convocation of Newark. The services 
were as follow : " The Holy Communion at 9 A. M. Preacher, 
Rev. E. D. Tomkins, rector of St. James Church, Long Branch. 
Celebrant, Rev. Dr. Boggs. Eight clergymen were present. Busi- 
ness meeting at 10:30 A. M., presided, over by Rev. R. N. Merritt. 
Collation at 2 P. M. at the house of Floyd W. Tomkins, Senior War- 
den — 30 present. Special opening service at 3:30 P. M. Twenty 
clergymen formed a procession at the house and proceeded to the 
church, where evening prayer was said by the Rev. Dr. Farrington, 
and the Rev. Messrs. Martin, Hall and Stansbury ; addresses being 
delivered to a crowded congregation by the Rev. Drs. Abercrombie, 
Farrington, Boggs and the Rev. Mr. Stansbury. A missionary ser- 
vice was held in the evening. It was, indeed, an eventful and happy 




44 



day for rector and congregation." Thus reads the brief record, 
entered in the parish register in the handwriting of the rector, Rev. 
Edwyn S. W. Pentreath. 

Back of that "eventful and happy day," and making it possible, 
lay the beginnings of parochial life, and between us and that far-off 
event is a period of twenty-five years, which, however chequered 
and full of trials, has in the wise providence of God resulted in the 
parish of the present, which is safe from certain dangers just because 
of what it has passed through. To-day I would tell so much of the 
story of the past as time and circumstances permit. 

While there are other religious organizations which antedate by a 
few years the history of Grace Church parish, yet the religious and 
church life, which was nurtured and trained in the ways of Mother 

Church and which finally organized this 
parish, was the first to seek to mould and 
influence, by religious organization, the life 
of Rutherfurd Park Association. In 1859 
Mr. Floyd W. Tomkins and his family 
started a Union Sunday School, of which 
he became the Superintendent, and in 
which some of his children were teachers. 
Out of this school, which was successful 
and continued in active existence for some 
ten years, came directly or indirectly the 
future church life of town. Somewhere 
around 1867 the few church families in 
Rutherfurd Park Association, which had been driving down to 
Christ Church, Belville, felt the need of the services of the church. 
Arrangements were made by which lay services were held in the 
parlors of the Rutherfurd Park Hotel — the building having formerly 
been the old family mansion of the Rutherfurds, and situated on the 
River Road, not far from Rutherford Avenue. It has since been 
destroyed by fire. In those days the Passaic was a beautiful stream, 
the waters of which, sweet and wholesome and full of small fish, 
attracted lovers of nature from yonder great cities to her broad and 
silent bosom, which in the autumn mirrored the most gorgeous tints 
of various foliage. The many stately mansions on the banks of this 
ancient stream, beloved by the Indians and first white settlers, bear 
witness to a beauty which we of to-day, who know the Passaic only 
as a purple stream, the forbidding surface of which is scrolled with 
oil and the shores of which at low water are distressing to the sense 
of smell, find it hard to credit, and only readily acquiesce in when 




45 

standing on her banks at Little Falls, where the clear water foams 
and chafes as it rushes over rocks which strive to delay its course to 
the sea, and are the lurking places of members of the finny tribe — 
the lineal descendants of those which challenged the skill of the 
Dutch settlers. 

The first beginnings of organized life grew and quickly crystalized 
into a public meeting of churchmen, held in the Rutherfurd Park 
Hotel on Thursday evening, March 4, 1869, for the purpose of 
organizing a parish. The following eight persons gathered on that 
memorable date : Chas. Blakiston, Geo. Kingsland, Robt. Ruther- 
furd, Henry T. Moore, Joseph Torrey, Geo. R. Blakiston, Wm. 
Ogden and the Rev. James Cameron. The last-named gentleman 
presided at the meeting, of which Mr. Ogden was Secretary. An 
election of wardens resulted in Mr. Ogden and G. R. Blakiston. 
Five vestrymen were also elected — Geo. E. Woodward, F. W. Tom- 
kins, R. W. Rutherfurd, Joseph Torrey and Geo. Kingsland. " In 
response to a public request," — I am quoting from the minutes — 
" the following persons handed in their names, as being willing to 
aid and sustain this Protestant Episcopal Church now organizing : 
Robt. Rutherfurd, G. E. Woodward, F. W. Tomkins, Geo. Kings- 
land, Joseph Torrey, Chas. E. Parker, Chas. Blakiston, G. R. Bla- 
kiston, Henry T. Moore, Wm. Ogden, E. S. Torrey, W. J. Stewart, 
J. P. Cooper and J. H. Dunnell " — 14 in all. The work begun was 
not allowed to drag. On April 13, the consent of the Bishop, Right 
Rev. VV. H. Odenheimer, D. D., and of the Standing Committee of 
the Diocese of New Jersey, to the organization of a parish was asked 
in a letter which bears the signatures of the wardens and vestrymen 
already named. On April 24, the congregation met in the Ruther- 
furd Park Hotel, the Rev. Dr. W. G. Farrington presiding, and 
decided by ballot that the corporate name of the Church should be, 
" The Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of Grace Church, in Ruther- 
furd Park." At this meeting were elected as wardens Robt Ruther- 
furd and G. E. Woodward ; vestrymen, Wm. Ogden, F. W. Tom- 
kins, Joseph Torrey, G. R. Blakiston and Geo. Kingsland ; R. W. 
Rutherfurd, F. W. Tomkins and Chas. Blakiston being appointed to 
represent the parish at the annual diocesan Convention in May. On 
the vestry coming together for organization Mr. Ogden was elected 
Secretary and Mr. F. W. Tomkins Treasurer. The necessary con- 
sent of the Bishop and Standing Committee was given on May 11th, 
and on the 24th inst. the wardens applied for admission of the parish 
into union with the Convention, which was granted. That was 
twenty-nine years ago last May. 



46 

But I am hurrying too rapidly, for I find on the Minutes of May 
12, 1809, the following interesting resolution, which was carried 
unanimously : " That the Rev. W. H. Lord be invited to take charge 
of the parish, with a salary of $1,200 per annum and a dwelling 
house." At the same meeting a committee, consisting of F. W. 
Tomkins, Geo. E. Woodward and Wm. Ogden, was appointed to 
ascertain on what terms land could be procured for a church build- 
ing. In the meantime the rector conducted services in the parlors 
of the hotel until the completion of the building known as the Acad- 
emy, and situated at the junction of Park and Rutherford Avenues, 
(where it stands to-day), when the congregation moved into it. 

I do not know when the Church moved from the Academy into 
Union Hall, which is on Ames Avenue, just back of the Shafer 
building, but the last election held was on April 14, 1873. The hall 
as it now is, is much larger than in the time of which I speak, hav- 
ing been added to. 

The parish was well started, full of hope and enthusiasm, with a 
strong vestry and a noble man as rector. Mr. Lord endeared him- 
self to his people and was a hard worker, but the parish was finan- 
cially embarassed, having assumed more than it could carry. The 
rector responded nobly to the circumstances, relieving the parish of 
the rental of his house, and later proposing to engage in secular 
employment during the week, but it was unavailing, and in 1871 he 
resigned. His place was temporarily filled by Nelson R. Boss as lay 
reader, who in 1880 became rector. From this time on the parish 
had to struggle, and every inch of growth was hardly but honestly 
gained. These pioneers of Grace Church were worthy descendants 
of the men and women who settled New England and the State of 
New Jersey. They never yielded to discouragement. They could 
abide their time and put up with the services of lay readers, but the 
work had to go on. There can be no doubt this handfull of church 
people complied with the fourfold requirement of parochial success, 
'' Work it up, talk it up, pray it up, pay it up." 

On December 30, 1871, an event of the utmost importance to the 
welfare of the parish, and affecting its interest for years to come, 
transpired. It was the acceptance, on the part of the vestry, of an 
acre of ground given by Mr. F. W. Tomkins, with the wise and 
thoughtful restriction that it be used for none but religious purposes 
for twenty years and that no mortgage be placed upon it without 
the consent of the donor. On this site was erected the little stone 
church, the formal opening of which we commemorate to-day with 
grateful hearts. There are here this morning those who can remem- 



47 



ber the breaking of ground on this slope on the afternoon of Sep- 
tember 5, 1872, just after the Rev. E. W. S. Pentreath, who was in 
deacon's orders, had entered upon his duties, being called on a 
salary of $500. Some can vividly recall the ceremony attending 
the laying of the corner-stone on October 14, 1872, when the ven- 
erable and beloved Bishop Odenheimer officiated, assisted by seven 
visiting clergymen. It must have been a beautiful and most pictur- 
esque sight when the procession, led by the Sunday School children 
who were followed by the wardens and vestry, and these by the 
clergy and the much-beloved Bishop, came winding its way through 
the woods from the old stone mansion, the home of the senior war- 
den, F. W. Tomkins, and now built up in Mr. Ivison's handsome 
residence. A year later and Laus Deo, from yonder tower, was 
sending forth an invitation to all to take part in the solemn and joy- 
ous services of the opening day. You can see the people coming 
through the woods and up lanes which have long disappeared. 
Yes, some of you live it all over, and those of us who cannot, to 
whom the past is a tale that is told, but who see this stone memo- 
rial, thank you for all the way you carried the load, and for 
building so wisely. The completed building is estimated to have 
cost over $7,957.48— a large sum for the small flock ! Aye, but 
love carries the heaviest cross uncomplainingly, and finds ways 
and means to meet expenses. At one time, for a whole year, the 
services of janitor is the free-will offering of a member of the 
parish whose body now lies on yonder hillside, facing the rising 
sun. At another, members of the vestry took turns in performing 
these duties. It was by acts of self-denial like that that the 
little church was built and maintained. Clouds ? Yes, of course 
there were clouds, and, like all clouds, they rolled away. And so, 
after a list of clergymen and lay readers, which embraced Rev. R. 
M. Hayden, deacon ; Rev. E. Huntington Saunders, deacon ; Messrs. 
G. A. Carstensen, Kirkbride and H. F. Auld, lay readers. The Rev. 
N. R. Boss settles down as rector, in 1878, on a salary of $1,000. 
And now for six years the parish moves along quietly and steadily, 
and many improvements are made. The great bell in the tower, 
which weighs 1521 pounds and cost $750, was paid for by the 
Basket Society. The interior of the church was decorated by the 
Ladies' Aid at a cost of $237.98— that was twenty years ago last 
February. A pipe organ, at the cost of $590, was presented in 1 S.s2 
to the church by the Ladies' Aid and the Sunday School. A plank 
walk was laid by the Young People's Guild in 1883. During the 
rectorship of Mr. Boss, the window in the front of the church was 



48 

struck by lightning and the church broken into and robbed of 
carpet, vestments, brasses and hangings. The stealing of the carpet 
led to the substitution of pews for movable benches. In September, 
1883, Mr. Boss presented his resignation and insisted on it being 
received, though the vestry requested him to withdraw it. Then 
the services were conducted for two years by a lay reader from the 
seminary, Mr. A. J. Derbyshire. It was a time of waiting in which 
ideas which were later to become fruitful were germinating. On 
Jan. 9, 1884, the vestry granted to Mr. P. L!"T5oucher permission to 
form a boy choir and vest them at his own expense. On January 
26, 1885, a unanimous call was extended to the Rev. Francis J. 
Clayton to become the rector on a salary of $1,000, which was 
accepted, Mr. Clayton entering upon his duties on the eighth of 
February. He came at a time when Rutherford was beginning to 
grow. The little village, hidden by forest trees, was becoming a 
town. Paved and lighted streets, bare of trees as the streets of a 
great city, were replacing the dirty and dusty, but shaded, roads and 
lanes of the country. The population was increasing and the neces- 
sity of enlarging the church must have been felt even before the call 
of Mr. Clayton, as the minutes of the first meeting of the vestry after 
his assumption of duties records a motion of Mr. Boucher to the 
effect that a committee, consisting of the Rector, Senior Warden, 
the Secretary and Mr. Wickham Williams, be appointed to consider 
plans for the enlargement of the church as soon as feasible. This 
work was rapidly pushed along. Everything was moving in those 
days. In the fall of 1885, Mr. Boucher presented choir stalls, and 
sanction was given for starting a society to build a rectory. The 
winter was marked by the presentation to the church of pews and 
cushions by the Ladies' Aid. During the following year a decided 
effort was made to acquire more land, but failed to mature. And 
now events move rapidly. The floating debt was paid off in 1887, 
and a building committee appointed at a meeting of the vestry on 
May 4. In April, 1890, ground was broken for the enlargement, 
which was to be erected according to the plans of Halsey Wood, 
architect. The corner-stone was laid in August, 1890. Six months 
later, February 5, 1891, the new chancel and transept were formally 
opened by the Bishop of the Diocese, Right Rev. Thos. A. Starkey, 
assisted by the Archdeacon of Jersey City — the preacher being the 
Rev. Elliott D. Tomkins, who preached at the opening of the church 
in 1873. The occasion was further marked by the appearance in 
the chancel of a vested boy choir, and by the pulpit being occupied 
in the evening by the Bishop of Utah. The estimated cost of the 



49 

improvements, without furniture, was $10,636. A mortgage of 
$6,000 was placed on the building and ground. The rector was full 
of energy and missionary zeal, neither did he hold his own life dear. 
He founded the mission in Arlington, driving over there Sunday 
afternoons from April, 1886, to June, 1887, when the Rev. John 
Keller took charge. This work off his hands, he built St. Thomas' 
Mission, Lyndhurst, going over Sunday afternoons in 1888, 1889, 
1890. Three years after the opening of the chancel, on December 
27, 1891, the Rev. Francis J. Clayton " fell on sleep " and " rests 
from his labors while his works do follow him." A fearless man, 
who did his duty as he saw it and spared not himself in his paro- 
chial work, "faithful unto death." And now I may drop the pen of 
the historian, for my manner of life and work since I came among 
you in May, 1895, is known unto you all. There have been many 
improvements. The parish is a unit, and I feel that I have its con- 
fidence. To none do I feel more indebted for support and assist- 
ance than to the Guild of Grace Church, and especially to the 
members of the choir and its able and efficient leader, Mr. C. H. 
Sunderland. How long are we to work together as pastor and people 
no one knows. I suppose that depends a little on you, much on me, 
and most on divine Providence. There is certainly much to be 
done — a rectory to be built, a parish house erected, a mortgage paid. 
And to-day, with all the past crowding into the present, I feel that 
all things are possible to them who love God and preserve the unity 
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The future of the parish is secure 
and hopeful just because of what the past has been. We owe the 
church of the present to that past, and to-day our life is linked by 
this church with the lives of all who have worked and died, all who 
have been christened and married, in this parish. And what an 
army it is ! — 362 persons baptized, 205 confirmed, over 50(1 names 
entered in the communicant list, 118 married and 161 buried. We 
thank the founders and supporters of this parish for all their self- 
sacrifice and labors of love, and we are neither afraid nor ashamed 
to say, " God helping, we will do our best to make the history of the 
present and the future so bright and noble that when we shall 
'sleep the sleep that knows no breaking,' and our children and the 
children of strangers assemble on this spot to. celebrate the fiftieth 
anniversary, they too shall thank God for putting it into the hearts 
of us men and women to enlarge and thereby equip the parish of 
Grace Church for its care for the spiritual needs of man " Amkn 
and Amen. 



50 



"Biography is the only true history." — Carlyle. 




THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

GEO. B. HOLLISTER. 
It is now a little over thirty-five years since the first steps were taken toward 
the formation of the Presbyterian Church of Rutherford. The village was 

then known as Boiling Springs, 
and its inhabitants were the lim- 
ited number of old New Jersey 
families, who owned and culti- 
vated as farms the land which 
the Borough now covers, and also 
the few people who were then 
just beginning to settle it from 
New York and who now form so 
large a part of our community. 
Among the newcomers and a few 
of the older inhabitants at length 
arose the desire for an organized 
church a n d a suitable place 
o f worship in their own 
community, it being necessary for those so included to travel to Passaic, where 
the nearest churches in the neighborhood were to be found. A number of 
people indeed regularly attended the Passaic churches, that is, as regularly as 
the distance, the moderate roads, (this was before the days of macadam) and 
uncertain weather would permit. But the time came when public feeling 
crystalized into action and in the Spring of 1863 a petition was presented to the 
Presbytery of Jersey City in behalf of a number of residents of Boiling Springs, 
among whom were David B. Ivison, Wm. N. Crane and Daniel Van Winkle, 
for the organization of a Presbyterian Church at that place, which resulted in 
the formation of the present church with a membership of fifteen. The first 
officers were D. B. Ivison, J. P. Jones and W. N. Crane as Ruling Elders and 
D. Van Winkle and John Qow as Deacons. The new church had at first no 
settled pastor, but the Rev. Joseph Allen, D. D., acted as stated supply for two 
years during which time the organization grew in strength and numbers. 

Those who were residents of the town in the early sixties and throughout 
that decade will remember the somewhat grim aspect of the first house of 
worship ; its plain, hard, wooden seats, and its almost bare walls. The 
building thus occupied was situated on the summit of a good sized sand hill 
whose position was directly back of the drug store and meat market which now 
occupy the lower block of Park Avenue. The hill has since been removed but 
the building still stands in almost its old position on Ames Avenue, and is 
known as the Ames Avenue Opera House, lis career has been chequered. 

Dr. Allen after two years was succeeded by the Rev. George Smith, who 
continued pastor for six years until 1871. Under his pastorate the church very 
much outgrew its first home and larger accommodations were demanded, and in 
the Summer of 1869 on an exceedingly rainy day the corner-stone of a new and 
much more suitable building was laid at the intersection of Park Avenue and 
Chestnut Streets; it is since known as Ivison Hall and used as a public library. 



51 

This new building was greatly superior in all respects to the first, aud was 
from time to time improved by decoration and the addition of a choir loft, and 
in the basement by a commodious Sunday School and lecture room. 

At the expiration of Mr. Smith's pastorate the church called the Rev. H. C. 
Riggs to fill the pulpit, who preached acceptably for five years until 1870, when 
he accepted a call to a larger church in Rochester, N. Y. Mr. Riggs was par- 
ticularly happy in his dealings with the young people and many of those who 
were then children will now remember him with pleasure both in and out of 
the pulpit. 

Mr. Riggs' successor was the Rev. D. M. Walcott who, though not installed 
as pastor, preached with success for two years and quite substantially increasd 
the membership of the church. 

Mr. Walcott was followed in the fall of 1878 by the Rev. E. A. Bulkley, 
D.D., from Plattsburgh, N. Y. who carried on a fruitful and increasing work 
for a full twenty years, lacking only a very few months. His pastorate 
covered the period of the town's greatest expansion, and the policy of the 
church was conducted in his hands in a broad and liberal manner with the 
needs of the future always in view as well as the necessities of the present. 
During his pastorate the needs of larger accommodations became again a 
serious problem, owing to the large increase in the population and the rapid 
growth of the church, and it was largely due to his controlling energy, ability 
and excellent taste that the present choice edifice was planned, financiered and 
constructed. It was started in October of 1888 and completed in the Spring of 
1890. Admirably designed and finished, it combines beauty with usefulness, 
including beside the main auditorium a large Sunday School and lecture room, 
library, refectory, pastor's room and ladies' parlor. 

The activities of the church are not confined to its own immediate parish, but 
from time to time, and little by little, have been extended to include the 
neighboring communities. Branch mission chapels have been established at 
Kingsland and Lyndhurst, and on the west side of the Borough of Rutherford 
from the small beginning of a Sunday School the attractive building known as 
Emmanuel Chapel has been built. 

From the original fifteen men and women who comprised the church at its 
inception the membership has steadily increased until it numbered in the 
Spring of the present year an enrollment of 562. At present the church is 
without a regular pastor, but it hopes shortly to secure one who will lead it 
forward in the line of its former usefulness, an honor to itself and a strong 
influence for good in the town. 



52 



" Love and Heaven are the only gifts not bartered, they alone are freely given. "- 

Anne Adelaide Pivctor. 




THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

REV. W. W. CASE. 

The writer of this history, is greatly indebted to E. E. F. Saunders, Esq., who 
prepared and read a history at the tenth anniversary of the church, November 
18th, 1897. 

On June 25th, 1869, a meeting was held at the house of Benjamin Yates to 
consider the question of organizing a Baptist church. There being an unani- 
mous vote the church was or- 
ganized October 1st, 1869, the 
church was given the name of 
"The First Baptist Church of 
Rutherfurd Park." The con- 
stituent members were, Richard 
Shugg, Maria A. Shugg, Benja- 
min Yates, Tryphenia Yates, 
William II. Locke, Elizabeth 
Locke, George D. Waterbury, 
Mary E. Waterbury, Catherine 
K. Waterbury, Samuel S. Hink, 
Hannah Hink, E. C. C. Hussey, 
Cecelia Hussey, James N. 
Bookstaver, M. Louisa Book- 
staver, Sophie D. Oldring, Emma L. Oldring and Sarah E. Winslow. The first 
deacons were Richard Shugg, E. C. Hussey and Benjamin Yates. The first 
church building was erected in 1870, at the corner of Park Avenue and High- 
land Cross. The lot on which this building stood was donated by Deacon 
Richard Shugg. The church had met in private homes until this building was 
completed. It cost $2,700. The first pastor was the Rev. John A. McKean, 
he was followed by the Rev. A. H. Robinson, Rev. W. E. Wright, Rev. A. H. 
Cornell and Rev. P. F. Jones. At a meeting held February 13th, 1885, it was 
decided to disband on April 1st of the same year. This action was taken in 
view of the inability of the members to further sustain the church. There 
were those who felt very badly over this disbandment. 

The Pilgrim Baptist Church was organized January 22d, 1885, but had onlv 
a brief existence. 

The present church was organized October 28th, 1887. The Pilgrim Church 
transferred all its property to the new organization. 

To this was given the name of the " Rutherford Church." The Baptist follow- 
ing were constituent members, Richard Shugg, Mrs. Maria A. Shugg, James 
Hewitt, Mrs. Amelia Hewitt, L. A. Dicker, Mrs. Jennie E. Dicker, Wm. H. 
Shugg, Mrs. Lizzie E. Shugg, Miss Delia C. Potter, Miss Maria A. Shugg, 
Miss Ida A. Shugg, Miss Florence C. Shugg, Miss May E. Shugg and Mis s 
Mary Faes. Richard Shugg was elected deacon, Wm. H. Shugg, Clerk, 
and Henry Prentiss, Wm. H. Shugg, L. A. Dicker, James M. DeWitt and 
Richard Shugg, Trustees. The church was recognized November 4th, 1887. 



53 

The first meetings were held in Masonic Hall, where the Pilgrim Church had 
also worshipped. 

Rev. James Hewitt, a member of the church, was ordained to the Uospel 
Ministry November 15th, 1887. He preached for the church for some time after 
its organization. 

In August, 1888, Rev. James L. Hastie, Jr., was settled as pastor. It was 
during this pastorate that the present Chapel was erected. The opening service 
of the Chapel were held January 26-28, 1890, and the season was one of great 
rejoicing. The church made large advances in many ways. Mr. I Iastie re- 
signed to accept a call to Croton, N. J. 

Rev. Wm. G. Myles became pastor November 2d, 1890. He was pastor about 
a year and a half. 

Rev. E. J. Cooper followed in the pastorate and continued iu this relation 
about four and a half years. 

Rev. W. W. Case, of West Hoboken, the present pastor, commenced his 
labors the second Sabbath of December, 1896. The church now numbers about 
one hundred and seventy members. A mortgage of $2,000 has rested on the 
chapel for a number of years, and Las been a source of embarrassment. 

This is being gradually paid. It is expected that it will be entirely paid 
before the end of 1899. Considerable improvement has been recently made on 
the Chapel and ground. After the mortgage is paid the people will feel that 
they can safely look in the direction of erecting the main edifice. They hope 
to erect an edifice that will be an honor to the town, and to the cause of 
Christ. Pastor and people are working earnestly together, and are looking 
forward hopefully to the future. The present officers are : 

Pastor : Rev. W. W. Case. 

Deacons : Richard Shugg, John H. Hingle, E. R. F. Saunders and H. J. 
Ronalds. 

Trustees: A. A. Clark, Henry Prentiss, Lewis Perrine, E. De Gruchy, Jr., 
and Wm. H. Hingle. Clerk : E. R. F. Saunders. 



" There are three kinds of men in the world — the man who does, the man that 
has, and the man that is." — De Morgan. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF METHODIST CHURCH. 

REV. C. L. MEAD. 

Methodism in Rutherford had a very inauspicious beginning. In January. 
1879, the Pastor of the Methodist Church at Corona, N. J., the Rev. W. II. 
Russell, was invited to preach at the Baptist Church, at which place a number 
of Methodists came, and after the service inquired if he could not preach regu- 
larly on the Sabbath, which he consented to do, and in three or four weeks a 
society was formed and a Sabbath School and church organized. Like the 
Apostle Paul, who preached in his own hired house, so Mr. Russell hired a 
house, furnished it with seats and preached in it until it became too small. 
Then the small but growing congregation removed to " Union Hall." which was 
fitted for service, and on March 3d, 1880, a society, known as the Rutherford 
M. E. Church was organized, with 20 members and 30 Sunday School children. 
The next year an attempt was made to erect a new chapel. A lot on Ames 
Avenue was donated by Mrs. Mary E. Ames, of New York, a small building 



54 



was erected, and there Methodism found its first public home So many have 
been its vicissitudes from that time until the present that a detailed history 
cannot well be given. 

No one can record the noble self-sacrifice, patient toil and heroic endurance 
of that little band of Christian workers who gave themselves to the work. Only 

God can know and reward them. 
With neither wealth nor social 
prestige, the frail movement 
seemed destined to failure. But 
God had chosen otherwise, and, 
led by His spirit, this faithful 
little band increased in numbers 
and power until Methodism be- 
came established. But misfor- 
tune sometimes falls upon us 
when we think the last diffi- 
culty to be overcome. The 
little church became unfit for 
service, and a change was nec- 
essary. The members secured 
the auditorium of the Union Club in which to hold services, which, though a 
pleasant room, was ill-adapted to religious worship. After some time the build- 
ing now known as Ivison Hall was secured, and there, with steadily increasing 
difficulties, the few faithful ones held together until the way opened for the 
erection of a permanent and suitable house, in which they now worship. 
When we look over the past, with its almost insurmountable difficulties, and 
view now our present conditions, our faithful, liberal people, our comfortable 
church home, we devoutly exclaim, " Hitherto bath the Lord helped us," giving 
to Him all the glory, fully realizing that only He could have brought us from 
such an insignificant beginning, and with such limited resources at our com- 
mand, to the position of strength and power we now enjoy. 




Sects he would not destroy, but sectarianism." — Longfellow. 



THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 

REV. DANA M. WALCOTT. 

In this brief note upon the history of the Congregational Church in Ruther- 
ford, we are reminded that history is his-story, and who but he can write it' 
In 1878 a little company of us were hungry for the life and righteousness of 
God and not of ourselves. Christ said, " I am the living bread that came 
down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall never die, but shall have 
eternal life," and we wanted that " bread." The charter of a Congregational 
Church is, in the words of Christ, " Where two or three are gathered 
together, there am I in the midst of them " — not to bless, as many add, 
but to be, and be known, whether in blame or blessing, as the Son of God. 
Paradoxical as it seems, the God we shun is the God we most know, namely, 
the God of judgment, and we sought not " additions," but God. We were not 
ambitious for organization, much less to rival others — in fact, it was more 



55 



God's want than ours that we should dare to face the "angry (rod " and there 
find he was the same as the pacified. We sought liberty to sing, with Faber : 

" I never wandered from Thee, Lord, 
But sinned before Thy face ; 
And now, as I look back, my sins 
Seem all beset with grace." 

Ours was a personal hunger for the knowledge of a personal God, and begot- 
ten of Himself. "For he that loveth is born of God and knoweth God," 
for "to know God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent, is eternal life.'' 
We assembled at Park Avenue and Franklin Place and held missions at 
Avondale, Lyndhurst and Woodridge. Then we met where we still are, at the 
pastor's residence, 132 Mountain Way, testifying, like the apostles, " of what 
God did with them." For twenty years the priceless wealth of His spirit has 
flooded us as He promised. We have known what it is to be angry at God for 
demanding of us our love or our death. We have known what it is to have 
been reconciled to God by the death of His son, and now as we are discovering 
what it is to be saved by His life through the words He speaks to us, which 
are spirit and life— and all who hunger for that " bread " are welcome. 



" Being all fashioned of the self same dust 
Let us be merciful as well as just." 

— Longfellow. 

THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHER. 

REV. GEORGE H. BADGER. 

The Unitarian Society of Rutherford had its beginning in a parlor service 
held at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Bell, Union Ave., October 3d, 1891, 

when twenty-two persons 
pledged themselves to the 
support of a liberal movement 
of religion in this community. 
Among these first members 
were Mr. and Mrs. Bell, Mr. 
and Mrs. E. J. Luce, Mr. and 
Mrs. Charles Burrows, Mr. 
and Mrs. R. B. Beaumont, 
Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Dann- 
heim, and Miss Sara Fletcher. 
For six months thereafter, 
public services were held, 
first in the old Union Club 
House, on Chestnut Street, 
and then in a hall over the En- 
gine House on Park Ave., preachers from New York and Brooklyn officiating. 
Early in theSpring of 1892 a branch of the Women's National Alliance was 
organized in connection with the society, Mrs. II. G. Bell bring the BiSl 
President, and to this organization the Church has been greatly indebted from 
the beginning for much of its success. 

At the end of six months the young society felt itself strong enough to go 




56 

alone, and assume the responsibilities of a settled ministry, and the Rev. 
George H. Badger was called to be its first pastor. His ministry began July 1st, 
1892, and very shortly after, the building of a Church was begun on a lot given 
to the society by Mr. H. G. Bell, located on Home Ave. This building was 
completed and dedicated as " The Church of Our Father," Thursday evening, 
Decembrl5th, with a most impressive service, in which the Rev. Robert Collyer, 
Rev. John White Chad wick, Rev. Merle St. Croix Wright and other prominent 
Unitarian preachers took part. Early in the September before, a thriving 
Sunday School had been instituted, which has since been the most encouraging 
phase of the church work. A little later, a Church organization was effected, 
with this simple Covenant as its bond of union : 

"Earnestly seeking for larger truth, and a higher attainment of personal 
character, we unite in this Covenant of love and right endeavor, to the end that 
we may better worship God and serve our fellow-men." 

The growth of the Unitarian Church has not been rapid in our midst, and the 
number of its supporters never very large. But it has enlisted in its work some 
of the most earnest and influential people of our town, and borne its part in all 
undertakings of charity and community-advance. 



Mr. Edward J. Luce adds the following : 

This Church organization is congregational in its polity and purely ecclesias 
tical in its functions ; all temporal matters being the concern of the Society, 
or civil organization, only. 

On the 16th of September, Mr. Badger resigned his charge as pastor, to take 
up a similar work in Nantucket, Mass 

Upon his departure from Rutherford, it was with sincere gratification that 
his society saw that his sterling character had been so justly appreciated 
without, as well as within, the limits of its membership. That many in 
Rutherford, outside of the Unitarian Society, will miss Mr. Badger's presence, 
is the finest and justest eulogium on his six years of conscientious service. 

The present minister of the Society is the Rev. Williard Reed, pastor also of 
the Unitarian Society of Passaic. 



LYNDHURST PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL. 

HENKY W. BAINTON. 

The Lyndhurst Presbyterian Chapel, situated at the corner of Park and 
Rutherford Avenues, was erected thirty years ago by the Rutherfurd Park 
Association. The lower story was designed for an academy and the upper for 
an Episcopal Church service. It is still locally called " The Academy." Rev. 
Mr. Lord was its first minister, who also had the oversight of the school. 

Mr. Ogden succeeded to the rights of the R. P. A. in the building and it was 
used for political gatherings and general public meetings. In 1881 the Episco- 
pal Sunday School was disbanded, and on May 20th, 1882, a Union Sunday 
School was organized, with Mr. William Harrington as Superintendent. 
After two years Mr. David B. Ivison bought the property in order to exclude 
purely secular gatherings from the edifice, and having spent $800 towards 
putting it in repair, he presented it to the community for chapel purposes, 
giving the oversight of the work into the hands of the Session of the First 



57 



Presbyterian Church of Rutherford, and for fourteen years past it has been 
conducted under the present auspices. For a year Rev. D. M. Walcott freely 

and kindly supplied the pulpit ; then 
followed a succession of students from 
Union Theological Seminary ; Rev. J. 
Gr. Rodger organized a Lyndhurst Alli- 
ance. Rev. Daniel Fox was the first 
pastor in charge under the Presbyterian 
arrangement ; in two years he was fol- 
lowed by Rev. James McNaughton, now 
a missionary in Syria. Rev. Robert W. 
King succeeded him for a time. He is 
now President of Henry Kendall Col- 
lege, I. T. Next Rev. Charles Park for 
a year. Then Rev. Wm. King, Rev. 
Wm. George, Rev. Mr. Miles, followed 
each other. The present minister in 
charge is Rev. H. W. Bainton, who has 
entered upon the third year of service. 
There are sixty-seven active members ; 
the congregations average about one hundred and ten and the Sunday School 
nearly one hundred in actual attendance. The finances of the Chapel are 
cared for by a committee of seven. Mr. Avery Denison, President ; Mr. R. L. 
Powell, Secretary ; C. A. Folly, Treasurer ; J. B. Fisher, Jesse P. Joralemon, 
Leonard Riker, Colin Campbell, form the present committee. A Ladies' Aid 
Society, a Christian Endeavor Society, a Sunday School, all combine to keep 
the work of the Chapel in good financial and spiritual condition. 




EMMANUEL CHAPEL. 



who 



This pretty chapel, as photographed by Mr. B. G. Pratt, 
lately moved to Ruther- 
ford and is deeply in- 
terested in its welfare, is 
the outcome of a little 
Sunday School started in 
September, 1893, in a va- 
cant room of a store 
building on Union Aven- 
ue, near the brick school- 
house. The idea of mis- 
sion work being needed 
at the West End of the 
Borough was conceived 
by Messrs. George B. Hol- 
lister. George T. Hollister 
and Edwin M. Bulkley, who enlisted the services of Mr. J JN 
Bookstaver. Over a score of children were corraled the first 
Sunday, and in five years the school has grown to oyer a hundred 
scholars Among the teachers early engaged in the work were 




58 

Mrs. G. T. Hollister, Mrs. Castor, Mrs. Kuhneman, Miss Emma 
Kettell, Miss Clara Milcham, Harry Magee and J. N. Bookstaver, 
several of whom are still faithful to their trust. Mr. G. T. 
Hollister was the first Superintendent, Mr. Frank Stedman succeed- 
ing him, with Mr. Frank Beasley the present incumbent. The school 
moved to the West End Club House on Santiago Avenue two 
years later, and when that place became crowded a new building 
was talked of. It being at that time a union organization, it was 
found impossible to raise money enough from any denomination 
except the Presbyterians to erect a church building, members of this 
church having started the movement. So the Rev. Edwin A. 
Bulkley, D. D., the pastor, was asked to help the cause, which he 
cheerfully did, so the chapel became a branch of his church, and 
among his last official duties previous to his retiring from the min- 
istry was to dedicate this place of worship last spring. 

The edifice is nicely situated on the corner of Union and Belford 
Avenues, on a lot 100x138 feet, and the structure was designed so in 
future years it may be extended to Union Avenue. The lot was 
purchased of H. G. Bell, who contributed a nice sum toward its 
purchase. It has been paid for, and a small mortgage remains upon 
the property. 

The Rev. Charles Ellis Smith, a student of Union Seminary in 
New York City, preaches every Sunday evening, and good congre- 
gations greet him. Mrs. Wm. Jesty, long the organist of the home 
church, presides over a good instrument and a choir. A Ladies' 
Aid Society, that necessary adjunct of church work, has already 
been organized, and the furniture, organ, etc., speak in silent praise 
of their activity and helpfulness. 

Mrs. D. B. Ivison has been a great friend of this West End enter- 
prise, and her goodness cannot be passed unnoticed. 



" Perseverance, dear, my lord, 
Keeps honor bright — to have done is to hang 
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail 
In monumental mockery." 

— Shakespeare. 

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

East Rutherford. 

Better than all other things in East Rutherford is an excellent 
Sabbath School connected with a new Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The Sabbath School originated about seven years ago with several 
good people including Messrs. Ver Nooy, Pembleton, Axford, Terhune, 
and among the ladies we find Mrs. Axford, Mrs. Schoonmaker, 
Misses Rita and Phebe Randolph, Mrs. D. Harris, Mrs. Terhune and 
others. The school now numbers over 225 with a corps of 25 teachers. 
Until the completion of the Church the Sabbath School met in the 
Public School building. About three years ago those of the 



59 

Methodist persuasion among us bought a fine plot of ground on Main 

Street, and last fall commenced the erection of a church. It was 

completed and dedicated 
last March, and the Rev. 
Mr. F. J. Hubach was 
installed as Pastor. For 
the erection of this 
beautiful church we are 
indebted primarily to the 
ladies of this congrega- 
tion notably Mrs. Gamier, 
Mrs. Axford, Mrs. D. 
Harris, Mrs. Schoonmaker 
and the sisters Rita and 
Phebe Randolph, who ex- 
erted themselves by giv- 
ing entertainments, 
socials, sales, etc., etc., in 

order to raise sufficient money to buy the ground and erect this 

church. 




" Warm baths, good food, soft sleep and generous wine — 
These are the rights of age and should be thine." 

— Virgil. 
THE UNION CLUB. 

M. W. HAWES. 

The Union Club of Rutherford was organized March 1st, 1892, when the 
following officers were elected : 

Charles Burrows, President; E. J. Turner, Vice-President; W. H. Stevens, 
Treasurer : C. Dannheim, Recording Secretary ; R. B. Beaumont, Correspond- 
ing Secretary. The first Board of Governors consisted of H. H. Copeland, T. 
W. Alyea, W. H. Smith, M. W. Hawes, G. V. Sloat and A. L. Watson. The 
Union Club was the successor of the Rutherford Field Club, which owned the 
building on the corner of Franklin Piace and Chestnut Street, and which was 
organized by the combination of the Rutherford Wheelmen and the Rutherford 
Chess Club. The Union Club in 1892 had a membership of fifty-nine, which 
has increased to one hundred and seventy. The object of the Club is the social 
enjoyment of the members, which is supplied by committees appointed by the 
President each year, who arrange stage entertainments, billiard, pool and 
bowling tournaments, informal dances, receptions, card parties, &c. The 
charter of the Club prohibits the sale or use of intoxicating liquors in the club 
house, and by the rules and regulations of the club no gambling is allowed. 
These features make it a desirable resort for all the members and a place where 
their wives and parents can find no objection to their attendance. Friday 
evening of each week is set aside as ladies' night, on which night there is 
always a bowling match, dance, card party or a stage entertainment. The 
present officers of the Club are : Henry Prentiss, President ; II. N. Bullington, 
Vice-President ; W. H. Stevens, Treasurer; J. E. Spaulding, Recording Sec- 
rerary ; J. K. Watson, Corresponding Secretary. Board of Governors : W. 
Williams, M. W. Hawes, C. A. Goodspeed, G. T, Hollister, A. IV Wheelock, 
J. Zahn. 



60 

' ' We do pray for Mercy, 
And that same prayer doth teach us all 
To render the deeds of mercy." 

THE ROYAL ARCANUM. 

BY HENRY JAY RONALDS. 

This great secret order was born of a high, and noble purpose to fulfill an 
important place in the history of fraternal benefit societies. It was in November, 
1877, that the Royal Arcanum was incorporated with nine (9) members and on 
August 30th, 1898, it had 195,256 members. 

One of its objects is to provide the financial protection of a life insurance 
corporation without unnecessary accumlation of capital. How well it has 
accomplished this mission may be comprehended when it is stated that during 
these twenty-two years there have been paid to the beneficiaries of deceased 
members the total aggregate sum of $47,462,036.38 

For a full-rate membership it provides a death benefit of $3,000, for half-rate 
membership it provides a death beuefit of $1,500. 

Its membership ramifies the entire North American Continent, excluding only 
such districts as are known to be unhealthy or subject to epidemics. 

It is primarily a business organization of the co-operative class, but it happily 
unites its secondary but very potential feature, the fraternal. Under this head 
it provides the social enjoyments and advantages of a Grand Fraternity. 

Rutherford Council. No. 1229, is a branch of this great fraternity. It was 
organized on January 17th, 1890, with the following constituent members , W. 
A. Tomkins, Dr. S. E. Armstrong, A. A. Clark, Wm. Fleming, S. N. Iligbie, 
J. W. Burgess, J. L. Chapman, J. C. Hastie, E. H. A. Ilabbert, G. N. Janes, 
E. R. F. Saunders, C, E. Tolhurst, W. G. Williams, C. H. Warner, A. O. 
Jackson. F. H. Miller. L. T. Savage, J. II. Van Harding, W. W. Ward, Jr. 

To-day there are one hundred and ninety-six members, and as there is a 
severe physical test given each member before he can join, it is not overstating 
a fact when we say that our membership comprises some of the best men of 
Rutherford. That they are the leaders in all things that go to make up the 
best interests of Rutherford proves that they are also of the hightest mental, 
moral and social standing. 

We have given some figures to show that we can calculate our benefactions 
mathematically to some extent, but there are other results which cannot be so 
surely computed, and yet no one who looks carfeully into the years of growth 
and development of the Royal Arcanum will dispute the fact that its influence 
in Rutherford has been large in moulding opinion, maintainiug its high moral 
tone and and substantially aiding its material prosperity. 

The musical, dramatic and minstrel entertainments of the Royal Arcanum 
have often been marked features amongst the entertainments given in the 
Borough. 

The Royal Arcanum stands for the protection of its members and provides 
material assistance to the bereaved widow and orphan, but the members of the 
Royal Arcanum do uot live within the shadow of the thought of death, but on 
the contrary are jolly and progressive, and while paying from $25.00 and 
upwards according to age annually into the general treasury for death 



61 

benefit, they secure for themselves all the advantages of a social club and 
fraternal society combined. In other words we do not have to die to win. 

It is not a religious organization and yet in the practice of those cardinal 
principles Virtue, Mercy and Charity, are seen a rich fruition of that seed of pure 
and undefiled Gospel which was sown in the world by Him who was the Great 
Teacher, namely, to assist the fatherless and the widow. 



" Drede God, do law, love trouth and worthinesse." — Chaucer. 
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 

JOHN PATRICK. 

The great American Order of Knights of Pythias was introduced in Ruther- 
ford on September 16, 1893, by the organization of Rutherford Lodge, No. 150. 
Among the names of those found on the charter of this lodge are A. H. Brink- 
erhoff, J. C. Sares, Dr. J. J. Ketchum, H. R. Harden, S. T. Davy, W. H. 
Smith, G. Y. Renshaw and John Patrick. An active interest in the work of 
the lodge has been taken by nearly all the charter members, so that at the 
present time the roster of the lodge contains the names of considerably over 
one hundred members, and all are men of good social standing, as well as beiDg 
fitted physically and morally for membership in the lodge. In carrying out the 
principles of Pythianism in this community it is pleasing to know that without 
ostentation this lodge has so performed its duty in the particular manner pre- 
scribed according to its rules as to commend the organization to the right 
thinking people of our Borough, and this work is of such a character as must 
and does commend itself to all Christian people, being work of the highest and 
noblest Christian character without the least semblance of sectarianism— a work 
that makes men better Christians, better citizens and better Americans. The 
social feature of the Knights of Pythias is carefully fostered, and to that 
feature is due very largely the well attended and interesting weekly meetings 
of the lodge. The endowment or life insurance plan in this order is a well- 
considered and admirably conducted business. Members may insure in amounts 
from $500 to $3,000, with rates according to age. Payments monthly, and only 
one payment per month, or twelve per year, required under any circumstances. 
This is made possible by a reserve fund being on hand of half a million dollar-. 
which is so invested as to be absolutely safe, draws good interest, and can be 
called upon to any amount required in an emergency. Confidence is shown in 
this by the one fact that about thirty thousand dollars of this insurance is being 
carried by members of the Rutherford Lodge. It is pleasant to have in our 
town an organization founded on the noblest Christian principles, its members 
living up to and carrying out those principles in their daily life, and all having 
a feeling of pride in that they are members of a lodge that is Bnancially sound 
and whose members are interested and active in the work of Friendship, Charity 
and Benevolence. 



62 



" He is to be called evil that is good only for his own sake." — Jeremy Taylor. 

RUTHERFORD LODGE No. 240, I. O. O. F., NEW JERSEY. 

BY OTTO RONALD BENNETT. 

The aims and attainments of this grand order are of such far-reaching scope 
that mere words are futile to convey to the mind, in this space, any adequate 
idea of the amount of work done. 

Self must be sacrificed in the presence of the manifold demands upon the 
brethren. Hence we early find incorporated into the primary statutes a system 
of weekly dues and systematic relief ; the obligatory payment of weekly dues, 
and benefits to the sick ; funeral benefits, assuring the decent sepulture of the 
brother's body ; optional benefits, that the "great command " should always be 
within the scope of the order's known duty : "Visit the sick, relieve the dis- 
tressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan." 

This special characteristic of the practice of Friendship, promoted by Love, 
and upheld by Truth, inheres solely in Odd Fellowship. 

Whatever others may do, the order's mission is to enable brethren to assist 
each other, by mutual counsels and united financial efforts, in the multiplied 
struggles and trials common to human existence. 

The birth of Odd Fellowship in this country took place on the 26th of April, 
1819, but it was not until August 3d, 1833, that the Grand Lodge of New 
Jersey was instituted, while Rutherford Lodge No. 240 dates its existence from 
the 17th of October, 1893. 

In 1891-2 certain residents of this borough, members of the order but away 
from home lodges, conceived the idea of forming a subordinate lodge here to 
which they might attach themselves, thus securing the benefits of a lodge 
home, so dear to every member of the order. 

The following seventeen members of the lodge were the main ones instru- 
mental in the organization of the order in this town : 

James Leyland, C. Henry Kotzenberg, 

Charles T. Johnson, William Henkelman, 

William J. Slingerland, George Ruckstuhl, 

(Jeorge K. Thomas, James H. Smith, 

Julius Jaeger, Rensselaer Furman, 

Horatio N. Fish, William W. Butler, 

David R. MacNeil, Joseph W. Beebe, 

John J. Dupuy, William Gibson, 

Frauk Spitz. 

Forty-five members were taken in at the nigbt of institution, making a total 
of 62 members to start with. 

While the growth of the order here has been slow, it has been sure, the 
present membership being about 85. 

The lodge is sustained by the payment by each member of $8.00 per year 
dues, the member receiving in case of sickness the sum of $5.00 per week, and 
in case of death his beneficiary is entitled to $100.00 funeral benefits, and in 
case of the death of a member's wife he receives $50.00. 

The order in this State has increased from 51 members in 1833 to about 30,000 
in 1897, while the membership in the country at the present time is nearly 
700,000. 

The amount expended for relief of distressed brothers in this State for 1897 



63 

amounted to nearly $150,000, all of which is paid from the various lodge funds 
and is felt hy no member, while the amount that has been paid by the order at 
large in the past seventy-eight years amounts to more than sixty millions of 
dollars, which sum has always been paid at times when most needed, and at a 
moment's notice, so to speak. 

While it is true that the order has passed through some very trying periods 
in its existence, still, as a tree shaken by the wind sinks its roots deeper into 
the soil, so does ths order grow in strength and in beauty until we find it to-day 
the most successful and prosperous of any like order in the world. 



MASONIC. 

•T. H. VREELAND. 

On December 9th, 1881, Boiling Springs Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons 
was instituted, and on February 27th following the Lodge was officially organ- 
ized, with the following charter members : Jacob H. Vreeland, Worshipful 
Master; Kenneth K. King, Senior Warden; Eugene A. Sloat, Junior War- 
den ; William Earle, Secretary ; Abram B. McKeon, Treasurer, and the 
following members : Andrew McClaury, David B. Burtis, John Casson, Louis 
Kruger, Addison Ely, Peter Dammers. The lodge was instituted in old Union 
Hall, on Ames Avenue, and after holding their meetings there a few times the 
rooms were not deemed suitable and new quarters were found on the top 
floor of the Van Winkle Building, Depot Square. These rooms were nicely 
furnished with Masonic paraphernalia, and there, on February 2?th, 1882, 
the Lodge was duly organized. William Hardacre, Grand Master of the State 
of New Jersey, with his Grand Officers, being in attendance, installed the 
officers as above. 

The Lodge rapidly grew in numbers, drawing into its membership a large 
portion of the solid men of the town. 

Owing to its increased membership the Lodge in 1894 found itself cramped 
for room, and on the completion of the Bellchamber Building on Park Ave- 
nue, leased the magnificent suite of lodge rooms in this building, and occupy 
them at the present time. 

Total number of members since organization of Lodge, 129 ; deaths and 
demits since organization of Lodge, 35 ; present membership, 94. 

The question may be asked, What is Masonry? A Mason is obliged by his 
tenure to obey the moral law ; and if he rightly understands the art, he will 
never be an atheist nor an irreligious libertine. 



" Ah! when shall all men's good 
Be each man's rule, and universal Peace 
Lie like a shaft of light across the land ?" — Tennyson. 

GERSHOM MOTT POST, G. A. R. 

P. H. JOHNSON. 

The Post bearing this name was instituted April 30th, 1891, with twenty- 
four members, M. W. Hawes being its first Commander, which office he held 
for two years. Then came Robert Leeds, who held the office for three years, 
the members recognizing the fact that it was due solely to his indefat- 



64 

iguable labors that the Post was instituted. Under his command the 
Post nourished and added to its membership until it reached the number 
of fifty-four. Horatio N. Fish then succeeded to the command, hold- 
ing the office for one year, and then came John Amery, who died in command. 
Clifford K. Reece was then elected to serve for the unexpired term, and at the 
last election was again elected Commander. Through harmony and wise lead- 
ership the Post has accumulated quite a fund for the relief of sick or disabled 
soldiers or sailors or their wives or orphans. 

The Post has its headquarters at Firemen's Hall, Ames Avenue, and meets 
on the second Monday in each month. During the Spanish-American war the 
Post was aroused to unusual patriotic fervor, and was not only foremost in giving 
money to relieve the families of those who had gone to the front, but a number 
of the comrades sent their sons to brave death, that their country's honor 
might remain untarnished, and if necessary the Post stood ready to again 
defend the old flag. But, thanks to a kind Providence, He seemed to say, 
Hold ! it is enough. The Post is ever and anon reminded that although a large 
number of comrades have been added to its membership, death has been steal- 
ing them away, and Chaplain Riley, Commander Amery and Comrades Clark, 
Ackerson, Prince and Seegur have already answered the last roll-call and 
bivouac in silence among the dead. These sad removals, besides removals from 
our vicinity, added to old age slowly but surely creeping on, constantly remind 
us that our mission will soon be fulfilled, but in the meantime we feel that no 
mistake was made when we pitched our tent in Rutherford, among friends who 
love and revere the same flag and who so nobly responded to every call made 
upon them by our Post. During the early years of the existence of the Post 
regular services were held at the cemetery on Memorial Day, and large num- 
bers of our citizens responded to the spirit of the occasion, and the inspiration 
of the hour was contagious and enjoyed by all, and the memory of our heroic 
dead seemed alive in every heart. But alas ! the services on last Decoration 
Day, although held in a hall dedicated to patriotism, were attended by but 
little more than a corporal's guard, notwithstanding but one short month before 
that same hall had resounded to the tramp of a younger generation, clad in the 
panoply of war, on their way to the front, rising to the full dignity of man- 
hood and of American citizenship. By all that we are in this life, and all we 
hope to be in the life to come, by all that is unselfish and pure and good, by all 
that is right and just and true, and by all that is noble and patriotic and holy, 
let us keep sacred the memory of our heroic dead, and our example will not be 
lost upon the rising generation, and God will bless a grateful people. 



" Thy hand hath made our nation free. 
To die for her is serving Thee." 

COMPANY L, SECOND REGIMENT, N. G. N. J. 

ROBERT A. BRUNNER. 

Company L, of Rutherford, after fighting to be recognized as a military 
organization for nearly one year, was mustered into the State service and 
became known as Co. L, 2d Regt., N. G., on the 22d of June, 1893. The orig- 
inal officers of the company consisted of Capt. Addison Ely, Lieut. Wilkin 
Bookstaver and Lieut. J. J. Blake. Lieut. Bookstaver was the first man in 



65 

Rutherford who was responsible for the company's organization. He was ably 
assisted by Robt. A. Brunner, but not until Capt. Ely came into tbe field were 
they successful in being mustered into State service. Lieut. Bookstavei 
resigned in December, 1896, and Sergt. Robt. A. Brunner was elected Sec, ml 
Lieutenant of the Company. The company, although an infant in the regiment, 
proved to be a lively one, and carried away many of the laurels. The first year 
at rifle practice they were sixth on the list, wbile last year they were second 
best out of the entire State Guard of 56 companies. In April of 1898, when the 
Spanish- American war broke out, Company L was one of the foremost compa- 
nies to volunteer. This time Company L responded with a larger nunibi-v of 
original National Guard members than any other company in the regiment. 
The company was ordered to Sea Girt on May 2, and on the 14th Capt. Addison 
Ely, Lieut. J. J. Blake and Lieut. Robt. A. Brunner, together with the mem- 
bers of Company L, were sworn in the TJ. S. army as volunteers to serve for 
two years unless sooner discharged. They remained at Sea Girt until June 2, 
when the regiment was ordered to Chickamauga, but the order was changed and 
instead they were sent to Jacksonville, Fla., where they were attached to the 
1st Brigade, consisting of the 2d N. J., 2d Ills, and the 1st N. C, designated as 
Co. L., 2d N. J. Vol., 1st Brigade, 2d Division, 7th Army Corps. The writer 
can testify from experience that during the entire campaign not a better 
disciplined company could the regiment brag of than Company L. Most of 
the time the company was on provost guard duty, and was highly commended 
for its faithfulness in the discharge of its duty. While at Jacksonville four 
men in the company were called on to give up their lives to their country by 
disease. Private Jacob Kotzenburgh was the first death in the company and 
the first in the regiment. Soon after Corp. Roe, Corp. Cohn, Private Newman 
followed. Three weeks later, while at Pablo Beach, the fifth death in the 
company was recorded by the accidental drowning of Private Peter Reddy. 
From Pablo Beach the regiment was ordered home to be mustered out, which 
took place on the 9th day of November, 1898. Rutherford has every reason to 
feel proud of its company, and may the time not be far off when some suitable 
monument will be erected to the memory of the five brave men who gave their 
lives for their country from the company which started from Rutherford on 
May 2, 1898. 

It is well to die if there be gods, and it is sad to live, if there be none. 

— Marcus Aurelius. 

NAMES. 

J. W. BOOKSTAVER. 

Rutherford takes its name from a Mr. Rutherfurd who lived at 
the lower end of the then Union township. 

It was formerly called Boiling Springs. Several speculators 
formed land companies here in different sections, about the year 
1870 and then the place was first called Rutherfurd Park. In L875 
when I had the Bergen County Herald, I advocated the abandon- 
ment of the word " Park " as inappropriate to a future city. There 
was quite a contest over it— the Mount Rutherfurd Company com- 



promising and acceeding to the abbreviation if we would spell 
Rutherford with an o instead of a « as the founder used it. The 
Post Office was the first to drop the " Park." 

The Erie station held on to Rutherfurd Park for some time after- 
ward but eventually gave way to the postal abbreviation and spelling. 

One is struck by the mixture of Spanish, English and Dutch 
presented in the nomenclature of our streets, and the way in which 
they were named explains it all. 

Among the Land Companies were the " Mount Rutherfurd Park 
Land Company," the "Rutherfurd Park Association," and the 
"Rutherfurd Heights Association." It was a booming time at the 
start, and each company sought high-sounding titles when their 
streets or avenues were located. Afterward when new streets were 
named, it became the province of the Union Township Committee 
to give the titles, the same as the Borough government does now. 
Union Avenue, Meadow Road and River Road were fixtures of old 
Boiling Springs — the main thoroughfares to adjacent towns and 
cities. Of course there was a Park Avenue of necessity, and this 
led down away below the Academy — now Lyndhurst Chapel — to 
Rutherford's first hotel, which was a summering place for New 
Yorkers, but was soon burned down. Mt. Rutherford, where Mrs. 
Ware and Mrs. Blackwood live, led to the names of "Mountain 
Way," "Alpine Span," " Highland Cross," etc. etc. There was a 
little sheet of water called " Sylvan Lake " at the foot of Orient 
Way, and of course "Glen Road" would encircle that naturally, 
and "Sylvan Street" would lead up to and beyond the mountain. 
The late Daniel Van Winkle besides being a very prominent man 
and a large landed proprietor here was greatly interested in the 
Mt. Rutherfurd Company, and there is a street named for him. In 
another company was a Mr. Ames, a large capitalist, and so we have 
Ames Avenue ; and Chestnut Street, originally lined by such trees 
as you see by the old Presbyterian Church — now " The Ivison 
Building " — derived its name from them. Mr. H. G. Bell of the 
Rutherfurd Heights Association, named " Home Avenue," having 
bought a strip of land of Mr. Kip and lined it with homes. To 
the westward the latter association holds most of its property, 
originally purchased of a Mr. Barclay by George E. Woodward, of 
whom I bought and who, after getting rich from his land sales and 
moving to Paris, sold the balance on his hands to Mr. Bell's com- 
pany. A Spaniard named Rita Castellanos bought the first plot 
corner of Union and Carmita Avenues, and he is accountable for 
all the Spanish there is in Carmita, Francisco and Santiago Avenues. 



67 



Mr. Woodward has a memorial street also. The late Mr. Donaldson 
of Donaldson Avenue was a member of this company. The old 
spring in the field below my house would naturally lead to Spring- 
field Avenue. Mr. Tomkins who was a large landowner years agone 
and who gave the ground for the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
possibly evolved " Wood " and Maple Streets, Mortimer and Mon- 
tross Avenues. Mr. Rutherfurd thought he would please some of his 
summer visitors by adopting some of the old Knickerbocker city 
names such as Stuyvesant, Pierrepont and Gouverneur avenues. 
Belford Avenue reminds us of Mr. Bell, and Cooper Place of 
ex-Mayor Cooper, who once owned all the surrounding land. 



A FEW INTERESTING PLACES NEAR RUTHERFORD. 

T. N. GLOVER. 

At Kingsland: the old Kingsland Manor House built in 1729. At 
New Durham, Frenchman's Garden from which Lombardy Poplars 
were introduced into this country. Hackensack: Washington's 
Headquarters. The old Dutch tiles are still in place and probably 
one hundred and fifty years old, perhaps older. Graves of several 
Revolutionary heroes, Home of Peter Wilson, one of the greatest 
American scholars of Colonial days, contains many specimens of old 
Dutch architecture. Passaic: old Van Wagenen House, built during 
the Revolution. Remains of bridge opposite cut down by Washing- 
ton to delay the pursuit of the British. Old graveyard containing 
many old graves with curious inscriptions on tombstones. Bell- 
ville has several very old houses ; Bellville quarries contain many 
curious fossils. At Arlington along railroad track, in cut, is a fine 
specimen of a rock slip, known to geologists as a fault. 



RUTHERFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

JOHN II. HINGLE. 

The history of the Fire Department as it exists to-day, marking the growth 
of Rutherford at least for twenty-two years past, may be stated as follows : 

Union Track and Bucket Co. was organized in June, 1876, and, as the name 
implies, fires were extinguished by water conveyed from wells and cisterns in 
buckets, the firemen and citizens forming a bucket brigade, passing them along 
to the burning building, and the water thrown on the fire or adjacent buildings 
which might be in danger. This method of extinguishing fires seemed to meet 
all the requirements of Rutherford at this time. In March, 1886, Engine Com- 
pany No. 2 was organized. The formation of this company placed a pumping 
engine and hose at the service of the town, and thereby dispensing for the time 
with the old method of bucket service and enabling the firemen to do more 



68 

efficient service by means of the engine and hose, although still dependent on 
wells and cisterns for water supply ; and it might he stated that the ditch run- 
ning under the old Erie Depot frequently furnished an ample supply of water 
for several fires which occurred in this vicinity. 

In September, 1890, Engine Company No. 3 was organized in the section of 
Rutherford termed the " West End," i. e., west of Montross Avenue, that sec- 
tion having become extensively settled and built up with residences, and the 
location of the other companies being quite a distance away, the necessity of an 
apparatus in this section for immediate use became very apparent, notwith- 
standing the other companies responded promptly to every alarm. No. 3 was 
equipped with a chemical engine, which was furnished with material for imme- 
diate use, and not dependent entirely on a water supply. 

The value of the introduction of Hackensack water in the town, through the 
placing of a few hydrants in the business portion, soon demonstrated the great 
advantage of such a supply of water for fire purposes, while an electric system 
of fire signals was established to ring an alarm from the nearest location of 
a fire, denoted by numbers sounded on the bell located on Park Avenue. 

It having been found that few of the members of the existing companies 
were in town during the day, there appeared to be a necessity for a company 
composed of men engaged in business in Rutherford, and in September, 
1896, Hose Company No. 4 was organized and equipped with a modern wagon 
style of hose cart, to be drawn either by hand or horses, and No. 1 has been 
supplied with a new truck, also drawn by horses, and longer ladders and in- 
creased appliances for fire purposes. 

It must be apparent from the foregoing that Rutherford is fully alive to the 
importance of ample protection from fire, and with the efficient services of its 
volunteer firemen and the equipments and apparatus for their use no serious 
conflagration need be feared in our community. 



" Paradise is a place where parents shall be always young and children always 
little." — Victor Hugo. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

The Borough of Rutherford is situated in the most southerly part 
of Bergen County, and is bounded by the Erie Railroad on the 
north, Union Township on the south, by the Hackensack River a 
very short stretch on the east and by the Passaic River on the west. 
Its area is something less than two square miles, of which about 
three-quarters consists of upland, somewhat rolling in surface, and 
the elevation of which is one hundred and twenty-five feet above 
tide. The remaining quarter consists of salt marshes, popularly 
known as "The Meadows." 

Population at the last census was five thousand. Public school 
children to the number of between eight and nine hundred, with 
twenty-four teachers, are accommodated in three large school build- 
ings situated in different parts of the Borough. The business 
portion of Rutherford village stands very near the Erie Depot, and 
consists of a goodly number of shops and stores and business places 
of various kinds, from which most of the necessities of life may be 



69 

well supplied. The only marked deficiency is in the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors as beverages — which has never yet been authorized in 
the Borough of Rutherford. The churches and dwellings are scat- 
tered through the Borough at no great distance from the station. 
About a mile from the Erie Depot is Lyndhurst, the nearest station 
on the D., L. & W. R. R. Three miles on the Erie or by trolley 
takes one to the bright little city of Passaic. Five miles across 
country reaches the venerable old Dutch town of Hackensack, while 
seven miles in the opposite direction brings the traveller to the busy, 
thriving, driving city of Newark. All this and more may be done 
by bicycle or carriage over fifteen miles of finely macadamized roads 
which are stretched not only through the length and breadth of the 
Borough but in many cases extend far beyond it. One hour to the 
east by trolley and half the time by the Erie Railroad lands one 
safely in New York City, and seven miles from Rutherford in the 
opposite direction, either by the D., L. & W., the Erie, or by trolley, 
finds us in the growthy, bustling, self-assertive, somewhat odorous 
city of Paterson, great in its dimensions and manufactures if 
in nothing else. Twelve miles of water mains, carrying an 
abundance of pure water to every house, take the place of the 
troublesome cisterns which a few years ago were the only source 
from which pure water could be obtained, and numberless lines and 
burners of gas and electricity at first eclipsed and since have nearly 
banished the once so popular kerosene. All the old inconveniences 
of life that tried the souls of men and women are done away with. 
We pride and plume ourselves on our superior manner of life and 
our finer culture, of which it is both cause and result, but are we 
better or happier or wiser than the forefathers and foremothers who 
lived so straitly, enduring what to us would be such hardships and 
privations, and yet accomplishing such noble work ? Who shall tell ? 



" Be not merely good, be good for something."— Thoreau. 
THE WOMAN'S READING CLUB. 

CHARLOTTE COOPER. 

The Woman's Club is usually looked upon as a modern invention, but ages 
ago, in prehistoric times, there was a certain woman who said to her neighbor 
"come let us work together and help each other," and then and there the 
value of association was recognized, and the first woman's club was formed. 

The spirit of helpfulness is an essentially womanly characteristic, and it was 
such a spirit which suggested to Mrs. Margaret (i. Riggs the idea of asking a 
score of ladies to associate themselves together for mutual improvement, 

The call was cordially responded to, and early in 1889 twenty-two members 
were enrolled. Mrs. Riggs was chosen president, to which office she was twice 
re-elected. She has been succeeded by Mrs. Castor, Mrs. Gnade, Mrs. Crear, 
Mrs. A. W. Van Winkle and Mrs. H. G. Bell, who has just entered upon the 
duties of that office. 

The meetings of the Club were held at Mrs. Riggs' house for several months 
and were most interesting. Many applications were made for membership, and 
there was a difference of opinion as to the advisability of limiting the number 



70 

of members, but tbe broader philanthrophy prevailed, and the organization 
welcomed all comers in sympathy with its object. The rapidly increasing 
membership rendered a larger room necessary and the Field Club kindly offered 
the use of its parlors. The hospitality was accepted, and the meetings were 
held in the house at the corner of Chestnut Street and. Franklyn Place until the 
Field Club changed in name to the Union Club, built the club house on Park 
Avenue, in the furnishing and decorating of which the women of the Reading 
Club took an active interest. In the ladies' parlors of the new house the 
meetings continued to be held until the Winter of '96, when the hall of the 
Library Building became the place of meeting. In some respects the room is 
not altogether suitable, and the members look forward to the time when they 
shall have a home of their own arranged to meet their various requirements. 
In the meantime they basten that day by investing a part of each year's income 
in a building and loan association. They have also a choice collection of two 
hundred volumes and a book-case towards furnishing the home that is to be. 

When the membership reached well into the second hundred the problem of 
how to arrange a program which should suit everybody became a serious one. 
The few who wanted simply to be amused were referred to the first article of 
the Constitution where they would learn that this was not an amusement club, 
but there remained a considerable and legitimate variety of tastes and necessi- 
ties to be consulted, and the solution of tbis difficulty was found in section 
work. The only limit to the efficacy of this plan is the limit of earnest desire 
on the part of the members. A section may consist of any number of persons. 
Any one who desires to investigate or follow any line of thought, work or study 
may lay her plan before the club, and if she finds no one to join her in the 
course she will at least find inspiration in making periodical reports of her 
progress, which is an essential part of the section plan. 

In the Autumn of '97 the value of the study of household Economics was 
mentioned, and some interest was expressed but nothing was done until the 
following January, when an original paper on Nutrition was read before the 
club. The paper had to be considerably cut for lack of time but enough was 
said on the physical, mental and spiritual effect of food to arouse considerable 
interest and at the close of the meeting the Household Economic Section was 
organized, with Mrs. Hobrum as Chairman, and Mrs. William II. Smith as 
Secretary. The meetings have been held regularly on the second and fourth 
Mondays of the month, and it is a most enthusiastic and wideawake section. 
The season just opened is marked by the formation of an Educational Section 
to be presided over by Mrs. W. H. Wvatt, who has arranged a most interesting 
program on child study, method and theories of education, physical surround- 
ings, etc., etc. It is to be hoped that this important subject will receive the 
attention it deserves. 

Such is in brief the history of the Club. One question remains to be asked 
and answered — What has the Woman's Reading Club done for Rutherford to 
justify its existence, or, in other words, is it a success? This much may be 
claimed for it — it has given the thoughtless something to think about, the 
gossips something to talk about, and encouraged the studious. The busy woman 
absorbed in cares it has taken for a brief space out into the fresh air, changed 
the whole current of her thought and feeling, which of itself is immensely 
refreshing and valuable, revived in her the power to help and the capacity to 



be helped ; and if I yet doubt whether the club is a success, when, at the close 
of a meeting, I hear a woman say, "Now I am going home to my children 
refreshed in spirit, with more patience, a nobler idea and a higher appreciation 
of my privileges as a wife and mother," for me the question is answered, and I 
am glad that I am a clubwoman. 



RUTHERFORD MUTUAL BUILDING AND LOAN 
ASSOCIATION. 

C. E. TOLHURST. 

This Association was organized May 12, 1876. There were forty charter 
members. The first directors elected were S. C. Harris, H. V. Gilbert, (lias. 
Myers, F. W. Tomkins, Thomas Love, J. R. Collerd, John Kelley, Charles 
Spiegel, E. J. Love. The first officers chosen were : President, Charles Meyers ; 
Treasurer, Alfred Oakley ; Secretary, W. A. Tomkins ; Solicitor, Luther 
Shafer. 

The net capital at the end of the first year was $4,137.82 ; at the end of the 
second year, $7,296.91; at the end of the 22d year, $224,031.03. 

Of the forty charter members of the Building and Loan Association there are 
many whose places are vacant to-day — some by change of residence, others by 
death. Could those meu look upon the present association it would be with a 
feeling of pride to know that the child they taught to walk had become a full- 
grown man and had accomplished an untold amount of good for the community 
in which we live. Very few places of the age of Rutherford can produce an 
institution of savings that has grown as rapidly as this. The monthly receipts 
of the present time far exceed the total capital of the first year. Why has it 
grown? Because it was founded on business principles, and has always been 
just and equitable in all its dealings. It treats all stockholders alike, and the 
man or child with one dollar invested is regarded in the same light as the man 
who has hundreds of dollars. As a savings bank it has great advantages, and 
the officers could instance hundreds of cases where these small savings have 
been of inestimable value to our citizens. 

Then, again, members have obtained homes for themselves who otherwise 
would be living in rented bouses, and in that way the Association is the means 
not only of benefitting individuals, but of improving the condition of the whole 
town, by fostering the principles of thrift and economy among our residents 

The present officers are: President, Win. A. Preston; Treasurer, J. W. 
Burgess ; Secretary, C. E. Tolhurst ; Solicitor, Luther Shafer. 



LETTER FROM FRANK STOCKTON. 

August 22, 1898. 

Mrs. Margaret G. Riggs : 

Dear Madam— In answer to your letter I will say that Mrs. 
Stockton and I retain very pleasant recollections of Grace Church 
and of Rutherford. As you remark, that village was the scene 
of some of the incidents in " Rudder Grange," and a few of the 
characters of the book made themselves known to me there, l'or 



72 

instance, the girl who served as the model for Pomona lived with 
us there, and in many ways she was a good deal like the girl in 
the book. The Swedish servant who planted ham bones in the 
garden was also a real character. 

For my own convenience I put the old canal boat, which had 
been converted into a house, in the Passaic River, although I found 
its prototype on the Harlem River. 

There are very few exact connections between Rutherford and its 
people and the scenes and characters of my story, but I received a 
great many impressions from the surroundings of my pleasant home 
there, which were used with advantage in the construction of my 
book. 

I am sorry I cannot say anything more interesting in regard to 
this phase of my residence in Rutherford, but as I seldom use real 
personages or actual places as models for my characters and scenes, 
the information I can give on this point is necessarily meagre. 

With the best wishes for the success of you and your friends in 
your good work, I am, 

Yours very truly, 

Frank R. Stockton. 



"Come, and take choice of all my library and so beguile thy sorrow." — 

Tit. And., IV., I. 

THE STORY OF THE LIBRARY. 

CHARLOTTE COOPER. 

The necessity for a public library in Rutherford was felt and 
talked about a long time before any definite action towards organi- 
zation was taken. Mr. S. H. Rhodes conducted a concert, and the 
net result of one hundred and ten dollars was deposited for the 
purpose of a library, but nothing more was done until January 10, 
1893, when Mrs. Henry G. Bell opened the subject in the Woman's 
Reading Club. It was considered eminently, fitting that a library 
should emanate from such a source and the president Mrs. F. S. 
Gnade appointed a committee to investigate the feasibility of the 
scheme. The committee called a meeting for February 16, 1893, of 
persons most likely to be interested and there was a good attendance, 
Mr. Joseph P. Cooper in the chair. The matter was discussed and 
the time was considered favorable for active measures. A committee 
was appointed to learn what the State law was concerning libraries, 
and to draw up a constitution and by-laws in accordance with it. 

On March 10, 1893, the Rutherford Free Library Association was 
organized and the constitution and by-laws as reported by the 
committee were adopted March 24th. Mr. J. P. Cooper, by virtue 



73 

of his office as Mayor of the Borough, was the first president ; all the 
other officers are elected by the members of the association. 

On April 17th a public meeting was held, many enthusiastic 
speeches were made and about six hundred dollars was subscribed, 
When the committee from the Woman's Reading Club reported the 
success of their efforts it was proposed that each member contribute 
a book, her own favorite if possible, the whole to go to the library as 
a gift from the club. Nearly 400 books were contributed in this 
way. 

Among those first interested in the library was Rev. Geo. H. 
Badger, who had had some experience in similar libraries in Massa- 
chusetts, and he undertook the work of arranging the details of 
shelving, cataloguing, etc., etc., and devoted much valuable time to 
it. A large number of books were given, some were bought, a room 
was hired in the Shafer building and furnished, and Miss Annie T. 
Cooper who had just finished a course of study in the work was en- 
gaged as librarian. May 5th, 1894, all was in readiness, and 
the library was opened with about 1100 volumes on the shelves. The 
library was at first opened only on Saturday afternoons and evenings 
but it was soon found that the demand for books was such that the 
borrowers could not be accommodated and Monday afternoons were 
added to the hours of opening. The increasing demand for service 
has been such that the library is now open on Monday, Wednesday 
and Saturday afternoons from two to six and Wednesday and Satur- 
day evenings from 7 to 9 P. M. 

Books have been added from time to time both by purchase and 
gift until it has now nearly 2500 volumes well distributed among the 
various classes of literature. 

In September, 1896, Mr. David B Ivison presented to the library 
association the stone building on the coiner of Park Avenue and 
Chestnut Street formerly occupied by the Presbyterian Church and 
the library was installed there on November 25th. The situation is 
an ideal one for the purpose, and when the finances of the Associa- 
tion justify the refitting and opening of the upper part of the 
building, Rutherford may be justly proud of it. The enlarged 
quarters rendered a reference and reading room possible and the) 
are now supplied with over fifty volumes of enclycopaedias, diction- 
aries, etc, and the principal current periodicals. Over a thousand 
persons have taken borrowers' cards and as many as 175 books have 
been given out in one day. 

The question is sometimes asked as to how the library is support- 
ed. The law under which it is incorporated requires that its use 



74 

be absolutely free of charge to the inhabitants of the Borough, so 
that there is no income from that source. It has then to depend 
upon Borough appropriation, fees from members of the association 
and gifts. The appropriation from the Borough has been $250 
annually, a sum totally inadequate to the current expense. Mem- 
bership in the association means the privilege of a voice in the 
election of officers and eligibility for office. The fees are one 
dollar annually or twenty-five dollars for life membership. Only 
fifty dollars was received from this source last year and that is not 
as it should be. More interest ought to be manifested in this way. 

The use of the Hall by the Woman's Reading Club and others 
has up to the present time more than paid the expense of sustaining 
it, and has helped to bear the general expense. The generous gifts 
of money and books from the good friends of the institution have 
enabled it to increase its efficiency and usefulness, but the time has 
arrived for the general public to manifest its appreciation both by a 
larger appropriation and greatly increased membership. 

Institutions of this kind cannot stand still, they must either main- 
tain a healthy growth or fall into desuetude. 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you from your crannies ; 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

— Tennyson. 

A WORD ABOUT THE WILD FLOWERS. 

CHARLOTTE COOPER. 

" A fresh footpath, a fresh flower, a fresh delight " — these words 
of Jeffries always bring to mind most vividly a vision of the early 
days of Rutherford, when rural charm had not yet retreated before 
the march of village improvements. My first impression of the place 
was received on an early spring morning, when the beauty of reviv- 
ing Nature was at its height. We approached by way of the River 
Road from Newark, and it seemed to us one of the loveliest spots on 
earth, and for me the impression of that spring morning has never 
quite faded, though man has done what he could to bring the place 
to a dead level of mediocrity by cutting down hills, filling valleys, 
destroying trees which were the growth of generations, and with the 
hard angled curbstone, has driven out the flower-bordered footpath. 
The violet, anemone and spring beauty may still be found in profu- 
sion, but we must go further afield for them, while the dainty 
hepatica, born to the purple, has gathered up her aristocratic skirts 
and left the dusty highway to those who like dust and highways, 
trolleys and barbed fences. The modest columbine, which, though 



75 

usually found on rocky heights, deigned to grace our tangles, has 
gone hand in hand with the hepatica, while the stately and brilliant 
cardinalis pined for the shade of friendly trees departed, and at 
length faded away. There were ferns, too, which are now wanting, 
driven hence by the juggernaut of civilization. But notwithstanding 
all this destruction there is yet much left to be enjoyed. There are 
still within the borough limits patches of woodland where one may 
spend a day delightfully. What shall we desire better than the 
fragrant bloom of the Pinxter flower, the graceful green feathers of 
the spleenwort, the delicate spheres of the wild sarsaparilla, the 
funny little spidery blossoms of the Indian cucumber root, the strange 
yellow thread of the lazy dodder, the fairylike spires of the ladies' 
tresses, the velvety twin blossoms of the partridge vine, the white 
bells of the pyrola and the golden ladies' eardrops. But time would 
not suffice if I were inclined (which I am not) to tell you all the 
secrets of the woods. On the meadows bloom for all comers the gay 
marshmallows, who hide their coarse foliage amid the waving swamp 
grasses. More modest and more beautiful is the wild rose which 
blooms beneath them. Most curious of all is the little carnivorous 
drosera, which has been nearly exterminated by the meadow fires. 
However, we may yet find there the buckbean, with its white, plush- 
like corolla, and the pitcher plant, with its odd leaf and odder 
blossom. 

The flora of New Jersey is exceedingly rich and interesting, and 
especially that of Bergen County. How long it will be left us to 
enjoy we do not know, and it behooves us to make the most of our 
present privileges. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

" For all the saints who from their labors rest 
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed 
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest." 

A few words are due the recently deceased gentleman, Mr. Floyd 
W. Tomkins. 

Perhaps to no one man Rutherford in her early history owes so 
much as to him and to his estimable family. Mr. Tomkins was a 
man of great energy of character, liberal and public spirited, and he 
infused the same spirit into those about him. A spiritually minded 
Episcopalian, he, his two sons and his three daughters nobly filled 
their places both in the community and in the church. 

Mrs. Tomkins— and some of Rutherford's old residents will 
remember the sad event of her death, just as her devoted husband 
had prepared a mansion for her home— was also a woman of great 
sweetness of character. 

Mr Tomkins was the life of the Mount Rutherfurd Company, and 
as a comparative stripling at the time, I remember how eagerly he 



76 

entered into every little enterprise that promised the good of the 
place. The Erie cars of a morning often witnessed the gathering 
together of the Mount Rutherfurd Company — Messrs. Tomkins, 
Ivison, Crane, Blakiston and others — discussing ways and means, 
and often in the city at lunch time, at Sweeny's Hotel, I have met 
him on the same errand. Mr. Tomkins was the donor of the acre of 
land on which the Episcopal Church now stands, and of the stone ot 
which it was built. His later financial difficulties, involving others 
in trouble, may have made him enemies, but there are those that 
remember him to do him honor. — R. S. 



HYMN FOR THE COMING NEW YEAR. 

" Another year has told its fourfold tale 
And still I'm here a wanderer in the vale — 

Why am I spared to see another year ! — 
Why have I shared so many mercies here ? 

' Tis not my birth for I was born in sin, 

' Tis not my worth for I've a heart unclean — 

From God alone my mercies I receive 
To Him alone I would forever live — 

Alleluia — let all their voices raise — " 
Alleluia — to God be all the praise. 



f 



77 



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BECAUSE — There is no possible danger of explosion, as with liquid fuels. 
Any child can operate a Gas Stove with perfect safety. 

BECAUSE — You do not have to pay for your fuel until after you have used it. 
People generally lay in a stock of wood and coal and pay for it 
before they receive any benefit from it. 

BECAUSE — Recent styles of Gas Stoves and Ranges are practically indestruct- 
ible, and you do not have to be continually buying repairs, as 
with coal stoves. 

BECAUSE — Everybody who has ever used a Gas Stove would not be with- 
out it. 

Call at Gas Company's Office and sec tlicse Stoves 
in operation. 

New York, Rutherford & Suburban Gas Co. 



83 



The New Rochester Lamp 

is the Lamp without bad habits— that never smokes or causes 
bad language or gets balky just when you want to show it off ; 
the lamp that looks good when you first see it and never makes 
you change your mind about it ; the lamp that is never willingly 
discarded. 

Every lamp, like every man, has some good points about it, but 
jjp the New Rochester combines the good points 
of all. 

If your handsome or costly lamp of some 
other make is not giving satisfaction or you have a valuable rase 
or bronze that you would like to give a new lease of life by 
changing it into a lamp, we can do it for you at little cost. 
Our booklet will tell you all about it. Sent gratis. 
We make anything in Oil or Gas Fixtures. 

THE ROCHESTER LAMP CO. 

3S Park Place and 33 Barclay St., New York. 





STER. 



The Williams & Andress Co. 

DEALERS IN 

Coal ana Wood t 

Rap, Straw ana Feed, 

ALSO 

COMBINATION FOOD for POULTRY. 

Dock, foot of Woodward Avenue, on the Passaic River. 
Yard on Erie Railway, near Station. 

Office, 9 Erie Street, East Rutherford. 



84 



R. GEISSLER, 

124 Clintnn Place, NEW" YDRK J 

batwBBn Fifth and Sixth Avbhues, 



7j ' z 



yupnifupp anb furnishings 
of (Bvtx\& Uwuptiott, 



L-> 



TJilBEl • &L#! 

for (Jfyiirctt or fjoiise. 



MONUMENTS. 



85 



E. J. TURNER, 
... GROCER... 



BEST GOODS. 



BEST SERVICE. 

LEAST PRICE. 

86 and 88 Park Avenue, 

RUTHERFORD, N. J. 

LACE CURTAINS AND FAMILY WORK A SPECIALTY. 

RUTHERFORD * STEftJVI • LAUNDRY, 

ALWAYS OPEH TO VISITORS. 



W. p. STEVENS, Proprietor. 



ALL SHIRTS tfAND IRONED. w^ GllEfl ROAD 



TMEO. /V\UEMLING, 

MANUFACTURER OF AND DEALER IN 

FINE CIGARS, 

WhOLESALE A/ND RETAIL. 

A LARGE ASSORTMENT CONSTANTLY ON MAND. 
ALL ORDERS PROMPTLY ATTENDED TO. 

Park Ave., Rutherford, N. J. 



'%***>%*'%<%*^*^ / *^>*^*^'%^ / %*w&%si^*^%** 



87 



BOTTCER'S 

CENTRAL MARKET. 

Established 27 Years. 
THE OLDEST BUSINESS HOUSE IN RUTHERFORD. 

The very choicest Meat of every description, 

City Dressed Only. 

Choice Vegetables of all kinds in season. 

Large stock of Cooked Meats constantly kept on hand. 

Prompt delivery guaranteed and quick service a specialty. 

Poultry and Game always kept on hand. 

The finest Hams and Bacon. 

Depot Square, 

Rutherford, N. J. 



The Park Avenue 

RESTAURANT. 

CONDUCTED BY 

G. L. HOFMANN. 

Meals furnished at all hours. Regular Dinner 12 to 2. 

OYSTERS SERVED l/NI ALL STYLES. 
— p»=«r.»c ice CREAM. ~r 

33 PW AvE/fE, QuTI/EHfrOriD, ft. J. 



88 



A. P. HACKETT, 

Carpenter and Builder. 



Houses for Sale and to Rent. 
Houses Built on the Instalment Plan. 



P. O. Box 207, RUTHERFORD, N. J. 

Residence, 115 Francisco Ave. 



STANLEY M. DEWEY. ROBERT J. LOWDEN. 

BOWNE & CO., 

PRINTERS, 

BLANK-BOOK MANUFACTURERS, 

STATIONERS, 

Telephone, 81 Beaver St., 

1 ^9 Broad. New York. 



?*■* 78 535 









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